Interpolation and optimal hitting for complete minimal surfaces with finite total curvature

We prove that, given a compact Riemann surface $\Sigma$ and disjoint finite sets $\varnothing\neq E\subset\Sigma$ and $\Lambda\subset\Sigma$, every map $\Lambda \to \mathbb{R}^3$ extends to a complete conformal minimal immersion $\Sigma\setminus E\to \mathbb{R}^3$ with finite total curvature. This result opens the door to study optimal hitting problems in the framework of complete minimal surfaces in $\mathbb{R}^3$ with finite total curvature. To this respect we provide, for each integer $r\ge 1$, a set $A\subset\mathbb{R}^3$ consisting of $12r+3$ points in an affine plane such that if $A$ is contained in a complete nonflat orientable immersed minimal surface $X\colon M\to\mathbb{R}^3$, then the absolute value of the total curvature of $X$ is greater than $4\pi r$.