Inspired by the Weierstrass representation of smooth affine minimal surfaces with indefinite metric, we propose a constructive process producing a large class of discrete surfaces that we call discrete affine minimal surfaces. We show that they are critical points of an affine area functional defined on the space of quadrangular discrete surfaces. The construction makes use of asymptotic coordinates and allows defining the discrete analogs of some differential geometric objects, such as the normal and co normal vector fields, the cubic form and the compatibility equations.
We present a representation formula for discrete indefinite affine spheres via loop group factorizations. This formula is derived from the Birkhoff decomposition of loop groups associated with discrete indefinite affine spheres. In particular we show that a discrete indefinite improper affine sphere can be constructed from two discrete plane curves.
We construct a new representation formula for indefinite improper affine spheres in terms of two para-holomorphic functions and study singularities which appear in this representation formula. As a result, it follows that cuspidal cross caps never appear as the singularities on indefinite improper affine spheres and so on. Comparison with other representation formulae are also studied.
We give a conformal representation for indefinite improper affine spheres which solve the Cauchy problem for their Hessian equation. As consequences, we can characterize their geodesics and obtain a generalized symmetry principle. Then, we classify the helicoidal indefinite improper affine spheres and find a new family with complete non flat affine metric. Moreover, we present interesting examples with singular curves and isolated singularities.
Asymptotic net is an important concept in discrete differential geometry. In this paper, we show that we can associate affine discrete geometric concepts to an arbitrary non-degenerate asymptotic net. These concepts include discrete affine area, mean curvature, normal and co-normal vector fields and cubic form, and they are related by structural and compatibility equations. We consider also the particular cases of affine minimal surfaces and affine spheres.
Given a pair of planar curves, one can define its generalized area distance, a concept that generalizes the area distance of a single curve. In this paper, we show that the generalized area distance of a pair of planar curves is an improper indefinite affine spheres with singularities, and, reciprocally, every indefinite improper affine sphere in $\R^3$ is the generalized distance of a pair of planar curves. Considering this representation, the singularity set of the improper affine sphere corresponds to the area evolute of the pair of curves, and this fact allows us to describe a clear geomet…
An affine hypersurface $M$ is said to admit a pointwise symmetry, if there exists a subgroup $G$ of ${\rm Aut}(T_p M)$ for all $p\in M$, which preserves (pointwise) the affine metric $h$, the difference tensor $K$ and the affine shape operator $S$. Here, we consider 3-dimensional indefinite affine hyperspheres, i.e. $S= HId$ (and thus $S$ is trivially preserved). In Part 1 we found the possible symmetry groups $G$ and gave for each $G$ a canonical form of $K$. We started a classification by showing that hyperspheres admitting a pointwise ${\mathbb Z}_2\times {\mathbb Z}_2$ resp. ${\mathbb R}$-…
We introduce a variational setting for the action functional of an autonomous and indefinite Lagrangian on a finite dimensional manifold. Our basic assumption is the existence of an infinitesimal symmetry whose Noether charge is the sum of a one-form and a function. Our setting includes different types of Lorentz-Finsler Lagrangians admitting a timelike Killing vector field.
An affine hypersurface M is said to admit a pointwise symmetry, if there exists a subgroup G of Aut(T_p M) for all p in M, which preserves (pointwise) the affine metric h, the difference tensor K and the affine shape operator S. Here, we consider 3-dimensional indefinite affine hyperspheres, i.e. S= H Id (and thus S is trivially preserved). First we solve an algebraic problem. We determine the non-trivial stabilizers G of a traceless cubic form on a Lorentz-Minkowski space R^3_1 under the action of the isometry group SO(1,2) and find a representative of each SO(1,2)/G-orbit. Since the affine c…
Since J. L. Lagrange initiated in 1760 the study of minimal surfaces of Euclidean 3-space, minimal surfaces in real space forms have been studied extensively by many mathematicians during the last two and half centuries. In contrast, so far very few results on minimal Lorentz surfaces in indefinite space forms are known. Hence, in this paper we investigate minimal Lorentz surfaces in arbitrary indefinite space forms. As a consequence, we obtain several classification results for minimal Lorentz surfaces in indefinite space forms. In particular, we completely classify all minimal Lorentz surfac…
It has been known for some time that there exist $5$ essentially different real forms of the complex affine Kac-Moody algebra of type $A_2^{(2)}$ and that one can associate $4$ of these real forms with certain classes of "integrable surfaces", such as minimal Lagrangian surfaces in $\mathbb {CP}^2$ and $\mathbb {CH}^2$, as well as definite and indefinite affine spheres in $\mathbb R^3$. In this paper we consider the class of timelike minimal Lagrangian surfaces in the indefinite complex hyperbolic two-space $\mathbb{CH}^2_1$. We show that this class of surfaces corresponds to the fifth real fo…
In this paper we are interested in defining affine structures on discrete quadrangular surfaces of the affine three-space. We introduce, in a constructive way, two classes of such surfaces, called respectively indefinite and definite surfaces. The underlying meshes for indefinite surfaces are asymptotic nets satisfying a non-degeneracy condition, while the underlying meshes for definite surfaces are non-degenerate conjugate nets satisfying a certain natural condition. In both cases we associate to any of these nets several discrete affine invariant quantities: a metric, a normal and a co-norma…
Consider the complex linear space C^n endowed with the canonical pseudo-Hermitian form of signature (2p,2(n-p)). This yields both a pseudo-Riemannian and a symplectic structure on C^n. We prove that those submanifolds which are both Lagrangian and minimal with respect to these structures minimize the volume in their Lagrangian homology class. We also describe several families of minimal Lagrangian submanifolds. In particular, we characterize the minimal Lagrangian surfaces in C^2 endowed with its natural neutral metric and the equivariant minimal Lagrangian submanifolds of C^n with arbitrary s…
The aim of this paper is to give a local description of affine surfaces, whose induced Blaschke structure is projectively flat. We show that such affine surfaces with constant Gauss affine curvature and indefinite induced Blaschke metric are described by soliton equations.
We investigate the geometric properties of hyperbolic affine flat, affine minimal surfaces in the equiaffine space $\mathbb{A}^3$. We use Cartan's method of moving frames to compute a complete set of local invariants for such surfaces. Using these invariants, we give a complete local classification of such surfaces and construct new examples.
In this paper, we show that the calibrated method can also be used to detect indefinite minimal Lagrangian submanifolds in $C_k^m$. We introduce the notion of indefinite special Lagrangian submanifolds in $C_k^m$ and generalize the well-known work of Harvey-Lawson to the indefinite case.
Bour's minimal surface has remarkable properties in three dimensional Minkowski space. We reveal the definite and indefinite cases of the Bour's surface using Weierstrass representations, and give some differential geometric properties of the astonishing maximal and minimal surfaces.
In this paper, using the Weierstrass-Enneper formula and the hodographic coordinate system, we find the relationships between the Ramanujan identity and the generalized class of Scherk surfaces known as affine Scherk surfaces. We find the Dirichlet series expansion of the affine Scherk surface. We also obtain some of the probability measures of affine Scherk surface with respect to its logarithmic distribution. Next, we classify the affine minimal translation surfaces in $\mathbb{L}^3$ and remarked the analogous forms in $\mathbb{L}^3.$
The total space of the tangent bundle of a Kähler manifold admits a canonical Kähler structure. Parallel translation identifies the space ${\Bbb{T}}$ of oriented affine lines in ${\Bbb{R}}^3$ with the tangent bundle of $S^2$. Thus, the round metric on $S^2$ induces a Kähler structure on ${\Bbb{T}}$ which turns out to have a metric of neutral signature. It is shown that the isometry group of this metric is isomorphic to the isometry group of the Euclidean metric on ${\Bbb{R}}^3$. The geodesics of this metric are either planes or helicoids in ${\Bbb{R}}^3$. The signature of the metric induced on…
It is proved that the moduli space of all connected compact orientable embedded minimal affine Lagrangian submanifolds of a complex equiaffine space constitutes an infinite dimensional Frechet manifold (if it is not the empty set). The moduli space of all connected compact orientable metric Lagrangian embedded surfaces in an almost Kaehler 4-dimensional manifold forms an infinite dimensional Frechet manifold (if it is not the empty set).
In this paper we study the general affine differential geometry of surfaces in affine space $A^3$. For a regular elliptical surface we define a moving frame of minimal order and get the complete system of differential invariants. As an application we classify regular elliptical surfaces of constant curvatures up to affine congruence.
We recall the well-known Chern-Terng theorem concerning affine minimal surfaces. Next we formulate some complementary (with transversal fields necessarily not parallel) affine Bäcklund theorem. We describe some geometrical conditions which imply the local symmetry of both induced connections. We give also some necessary and sufficient conditions under which the affine fundamental forms are proportional.
We investigate whether Szabo's metrizability theorem can be extended to Finsler spaces of indefinite signature. For smooth, positive definite Finsler metrics, this important theorem states that, if the metric is of Berwald type (i.e., its Chern-Rund connection defines an affine connection on the underlying manifold), then it is affinely equivalent to a Riemann space, meaning that its affine connection is the Levi-Civita connection of some Riemannian metric. We show for the first time that this result does not extend to Finsler spacetimes. More precisely, we find a large class of Berwald spacet…
For $n\geq2,$ we obtain Liouville type theorems for minimal surface equations in half space $\mathbf R^n_+$ with affine Dirichlet boundary value or constant Neumann boundary value.
1-flat irreducible G-structures, equivalently, irreducible G-structures admitting torsion-free affine connections, have been studied extensively in differential geometry, especially in connection with the theory of affine holonomy groups. We propose to study them in a setting in algebraic geometry, where they arise from varieties of minimal rational tangents (VMRT) associated to families of minimal rational curves on uniruled projective manifolds. We prove that such a structure is locally symmetric when the dimension of the uniruled projective manifold is at least 5. By the classification resu…
We give a construction which produces a positive energy representation of the affine Lie algebra of type A_n from the Stokes data of a solution of the tt*-Toda equations of type A_n. The construction appears to play a role in conformal field theory. We illustrate this with several examples: the fusion ring, W-algebra minimal models (Argyres-Douglas theory), as well as topological-antitopological fusion itself. (Minor typographical changes for this version.)
This is the first in a series of papers devoted to an analogue of the metaplectic representation, namely, the minimal unitary representation of an indefinite orthogonal group; this representation corresponds to the minimal nilpotent coadjoint orbit in the philosophy of Kirillov-Kostant. We begin by applying methods from conformal geometry of pseudo-Riemannian manifolds to a general construction of an infinite-dimensional representation of the conformal group on the solution space of the Yamabe equation. By functoriality of the constructions, we obtain different models of the unitary representa…
