Knot theory is the study of isotopy classes of embeddings of the circle $S^1$ into a 3-manifold, specifically $R^3$. The Fáry-Milnor Theorem says that any curve in $R^3$ of total curvature less than $4π$ is unknotted. More generally, a (finite) graph consists of a finite number of edges and vertices. Given a topological type of graphs $Γ$, what limitations on the isotopy class of $Γ$ are implied by a bound on total curvature? What does ``total curvature" mean for a graph? We define a natural notion of net total curvature of a graph $Γ$ in $R^3$, and prove that if $Γ$ is homeomorphic to the $θ$-graph, then the net total curvature of $Γ$ \geq 3π$; and if it is $< 4π$, then $Γ$ is isotopic in $R^3$ to a planar $θ$-graph. Further, the net total curvature $= 3π$ only when $Γ$ is a convex plane curve plus a chord. We begin our discussion with piecewise smooth graphs, and extend all these results to continuous graphs in the final section. In particular, we show that continuous graphs of finite total curvature are isotopic to polygonal graphs.
Let $M$ be a Kähler-Einstein surface with positive scalar curvature. If the initial surface is sufficiently close to a holomorphic curve, we show that the mean curvature flow has a global solution and it converges to a holomorphic curve.
In this article, the author provides full details of the proof of the concordance/isotopy problem. The first published proof, [5], accomplished this task only partially since there was an error, see the erratum [6], which damaged the main argument of [5, Theorem 2.9], and, consequently, the proof of [5, Theorem A].
In this note, we discuss the mean curvature flow of graphs of maps between Riemannian manifolds. Special emphasis will be placed on estimates of the flow as a non-linear parabolic system of differential equations. Several global existence theorems and applications to isotopy problems in geometry and topology will be presented. The results are based on joint works of the author with his collaborators I. Medoš, K. Smoczyk, and M.-P. Tsui.
In this paper, we establish compactness for various geometric curvature energies including integral Menger curvature, and tangent-point repulsive potentials, defined a priori on the class of compact, embedded $m$-dimensional Lipschitz submanifolds in ${\mathbb{R}}^n$. It turns out that due to a smoothing effect any sequence of submanifolds with uniformly bounded energy contains a subsequence converging in $C^1$ to a limit submanifold. This result has two applications. The first one is an isotopy finiteness theorem: there are only finitely many isotopy types of such submanifolds below a given e…
Let f be a smooth map between unit spheres of possibly different dimensions. We prove the global existence and convergence of the mean curvature flow of the graph of f under various conditions. A corollary is that any area-decreasing map between unit spheres (of possibly different dimensions) is homotopic to a constant map.
The deformation problem for pseudoholomorphic curves and related geometrical properties of the total moduli space of pseudoholomorphic curves are studied. A sufficient condition for the saddle point property of the total moduli space is established. The local symplectic isotopy problem is formulated and solved for the case of imbedded pseudoholomorphic curves. It is shown that any two symplectically imbedded surfaces Sigma_0, Sigma_1 in CP^2 of the same degree d\le 6 are symplectically isotopic.
Two positive scalar curvature metrics $g_0$, $g_1$ on a manifold $M$ are psc-isotopic if they are homotopic through metrics of positive scalar curvature. It is well known that if two metrics $g_0$, $g_1$ of positive scalar curvature on a closed compact manifold $M$ are psc-isotopic, then they are psc-concordant: i.e., there exists a metric $\bar{g}$ of positive scalar curvature on the cylinder $M\times I$ which extends the metrics $g_0$ on $M\times {0}$ and $g_1$ on $M\times {1}$ and is a product metric near the boundary. The main result of the paper is that if psc-metrics $g_0$, $g_1$ on $M$ …
Given any embedded Lagrangian on a four dimensional compact Calabi-Yau, we find another Lagrangian in the same Hamiltonian isotopy class which develops a finite time singularity under mean curvature flow. This contradicts a weaker version of the Thomas-Yau conjecture regarding long time existence and convergence of Lagrangian mean curvature flow.
The thickness, NIR(K) of a knot or link K is defined to be the radius of the largest solid tube one can put around the curve without any self intersections, which is also known as the normal injectivity radius of K. For C^{1,1} curves K, NIR(K)=min{(1/2)DCSC(K),(1/(supkappa(K))))}, where kappa(K) is the generalized curvature, and the double critical self distance DCSD(K) is the shortest length of the segments perpendicular to K at both end points. The knots and links in ideal shapes (or tight knots or links) belong to the minima of ropelength = length/thickness within a fixed isotopy class. In…
We prove that every immersed $C^2$-curve $γ$ in $\mathbb R^n$, $n\geqslant 3$ with curvature $k_γ$ can be $C^1$-approximated by immersed $C^2$-curves having prescribed curvature $k>k_γ$. The approximating curves satisfy a $C^1$-dense $h$-principle. As an application we obtain the existence of $C^2$-knots of arbitrary positive curvature in each isotopy class, which generalizes a similar result by McAtee for $C^2$-knots of constant curvature.
We define a new notion of total curvature, called net total curvature, for finite graphs embedded in Rn, and investigate its properties. Two guiding principles are given by Milnor's way of measuring the local crookedness of a Jordan curve via a Crofton-type formula, and by considering the double cover of a given graph as an Eulerian circuit. The strength of combining these ideas in defining the curvature functional is (1) it allows us to interpret the singular/non-eulidean behavior at the vertices of the graph as a superposition of vertices of a 1-dimensional manifold, and thus (2) one can com…
A differential geometric characterization of the braid-index of a link is found. After multiplication by 2pi, it equals the infimum of the sum of total curvature and total absolute torsion over holonomic representatives of the link. Upper and lower bounds for the infimum of total curvature over holonomic representatives of a link are given in terms of its braid- and bridge-index. Examples showing that these bounds are sharp are constructed.
We establish a new fundamental relationship between total curvature of knots and crossing number. If K is a smooth knot in 3-space, R the cross-section radius of a uniform tube neighborhood of K, L the arclength of K, and k the total curvature of K, then (up to a coefficient independent of K), crossing number of K < (k)(L/R). There are families of knots whose crossing numbers grow faster than either k or L/R separately. For example, the knots whose crossing numbers grow with the (4/3)-power of ropelength must have total curvature growing arbitrarily large as well.
We consider properties of the total absolute geodesic curvature functional on circle immersions into a Riemann surface. In particular, we study its behavior under regular homotopies, its infima in regular homotopy classes, and the homotopy types of spaces of its local minima. We consider properties of the total curvature functional on the space of 2-sphere immersions into 3-space. We show that the infimum over all sphere eversions of the maximum of the total curvature during an eversion is at most 8πand we establish a non-injectivity result for local minima.
We define the total curvature of a semialgebraic embedding of a graph in the 3-dimensional Euclidean space. We prove that it satisfies a Chern-Lashof type inequality and we describe when the equality holds. We also prove a generalization of a classical result of Fary and Milnor stating that certain graphs cannot be knotted if they are not too curved. The techniques employed are Morse theoretic.
We consider the integrals of $r$-mean curvatures $S_r$ of a complete hypersurface $M$ in space forms $\mathcal{Q}_c^{n+1}$ which generalize volume $(r=0)$, total mean curvature $(r=1)$, total scalar curvature $(r=2)$ and total curvature $(r=n)$. Among other results we prove that a complete properly immersed hypersurface of a space form with $S_r\geq 0$, $S_r\not\equiv 0$ and $S_{r+1}\equiv 0$ for some $r\le n-1$ has $\int_MS_rdM=\infty.$
A set of control points can determine a Bezier surface and a triangulated surface simultaneously. We prove that the triangulated surface becomes homeomorphic and ambient isotopic to the Bezier surface via subdivision. We also show that the total Gaussian curvature of the triangulated surface converges to the total Gaussian curvature of the Bezier surface.
A complete surface of constant mean curvature 1 (CMC-1) in hyperbolic 3-space with constant curvature -1 has two natural notions of "total curvature"-- one is the total absolute curvature which is the integral over the surface of the absolute value of the Gaussian curvature, and the other is the dual total absolute curvature which is the total absolute curvature of the dual CMC-1 surface. In this paper, we completely classify CMC-1 surfaces with dual total absolute curvature at most 4π. Moreover, we give new examples and partially classify CMC-1 surfaces with dual total absolute curvature at m…
We review recent results on classifying complete constant mean curvature 1 (CMC 1) surfaces in hyperbolic 3-space with low total curvature. There are two natural notions of "total curvature" -- one is the total absolute curvature, which is the integral over the surface of the absolute value of the Gaussian curvature, and the other is the dual total absolute curvature, which is the total absolute curvature of the dual CMC 1 surface. Here we discuss results on both notions (proven in two other papers by the authors), and we introduce new results as well.
In this paper, we show that steady or shrinking complete gradient Yamabe solitons with finite total scalar curvature and non-positive Ricci curvature are Ricci flat. Moreover, under certain pinching condition for Ricci curvature, we show that steady or shrinking complete gradient Yamabe solitons with finite total scalar curvature and non-positive scalar curvature have zero scalar curvature.
We survey our recent results on classifying complete constant mean curvature 1 (CMC-1) surfaces in hyperbolic 3-space with low total curvature. There are two natural notions of "total curvature"-- one is the total absolute curvature which is the integral over the surface of the absolute value of the Gaussian curvature, and the other is the dual total absolute curvature which is the total absolute curvature of the dual CMC-1 surface. Here we discuss results on both notions (proven in two other papers by the authors), and we introduce some new results (with proofs) as well.
We establish a curvature estimate for classical minimal surfaces with total boundary curvature less than 4π. The main application is a bound on the genus of these surfaces depending solely on the geometry of the boundary curve. We also prove that the set of simple closed curves with total curvature less than 4πand which do not bound an orientable compact embedded minimal surface of genus greater than g, for any given g, is open in the C^{2,α} topology.
In this work, complete constant mean curvature 1 (CMC-1) surfaces in hyperbolic 3-space with total absolute curvature at most 4 pi are classified. This classification suggests that the Cohn-Vossen inequality can be sharpened for surfaces with odd numbers of ends, and a proof of this is given.
The goal of this article is to study minimal surfaces in $\mathbb{M}^2 \times \mathbb{R}$ having finite total curvature, where $\mathbb{M}^2$ is a Hadamard manifold. The main result gives a formula to compute the total curvature in terms of topological, geometrical and conformal data of the minimal surface. In particular, we prove the total curvature is an integral multiple of $2π$.
The purpose of this paper is to reveal the relationship between the total curvature and the global behavior of the Gauss map of a complete minimal Lagrangian surface in the complex two-space. To achieve this purpose, we show the precise maximal number of exceptional values of the Gauss map for a complete minimal Lagrangian surface with finite total curvature in the complex two-space. Moreover, we prove that if the Gauss map of a complete minimal Lagrangian surface which is not a Lagrangian plane omits three values, then it takes all other values infinitely many times.
On a compact n-dimensional manifold, it has been conjectured that a critical point metric of the total scalar curvature, restricted to the space of metrics with constant scalar curvature of unit volume, will be Einstein. This conjecture was proposed in 1984 by Besse, but has yet to be proved. In this paper, we prove that if the manifold with the critical point metric has harmonic curvature, then it is isometric to a standard sphere.
We introduce the totally absolute lightcone curvature for a spacelike submanifold with general codimension and investigate global properties of this curvature. One of the consequences is that the Chern-Lashof type inequality holds. Then the notion of lightlike tightness is naturally induced.
We construct ancient solutions to Curve Shortening in the plane whose total curvature is uniformly bounded by gluing together an arbitrary chain of given Grim Reapers along their common asymptotes.
We prove that the Euclidean plane is the only Riemannian plane with total curvature and free of conjugate points that satisfies Playfair's version of the parallel postulate.
We consider surfaces with parallel mean curvature vector field and finite total curvature in product spaces of type $\mathbb{M}^n(c)\times\mathbb{R}$, where $\mathbb{M}^n(c)$ is a space form, and characterize certain of these surfaces. When $n=2$, our results are similar to those obtained in \cite{bds} for surfaces with constant mean curvature in space forms.
In this paper, we prove several Poincaré inequalities of fractional type on conformally flat manifolds with finite total Q-curvature. This shows a new aspect of the $Q$-curvature on noncompact complete manifolds.
A special formula for the total mean curvature of an ovaloid is derived. This formula allows us to extend the notion of the mean curvature to the class of boundaries of strictly convex sets. Moreover, some integral formula for ovaloids is proved.
In this paper, we consider complete non-catenoidal minimal surfaces of finite total curvature with two ends. A family of such minimal surfaces with least total absolute curvature is given. Moreover, we obtain a uniqueness theorem for this family from its symmetries.
The geodesic total curvature of rectifiable spherical curves is analyzed. We extend to the case of high dimension spheres the explicit formula that holds true for curves supported into the 2-sphere. For this purpose, we take advantage of some new integral-geometric formulas concerning both the Euclidean and geodesic total curvature of spherical curves.
In this paper, we obtain the isoperimetric inequality on conformally flat manifold with finite total $Q$-curvature. This is a higher dimensional analogue of Li and Tam's result \cite{L-T} on surfaces with finite total Gaussian curvature. The main step in the proof is based on the construction of a quasiconformal map whose Jacobian is suitably bounded.
We derive total mean curvature integration formulae of a three co-dimensional foliation $\mathcal{F}^{n}$ on a screen integrable half-lightlike submanifold, $M^{n+1}$ in a semi-Riemannian manifold $\overline{M}^{n+3}$. We give generalized differential equations relating to mean curvatures of a totally umbilical half-lightlike submanifold admitting a totally umbilical screen distribution, and show that they are generalizations of those given by [4].
Applying the general theory about complete spacelike stationary (i.e. zero mean curvature) surfaces in 4-dimensional Lorentz space $\mathbb{R}^4_1$, we classify those regular algebraic ones with total Gaussian curvature $-\int K\mathrm{d}M=4π$. Such surfaces must be oriented and be congruent to either the generalized catenoids or the generalized enneper surfaces. For non-orientable stationary surfaces, we consider the Weierstrass representation on the oriented double covering $\widetilde{M}$ (of genus $g$) and generalize Meeks and Oliveira's Möbius bands. The total Gaussian curvature are shown…
We prove a phenomenon of concentration of total curvature for stable minimal surfaces in the product space H^2xR; where H^2 is the hyperbolic plane. Under some geometric conditions on the asymptotic boundary of an oriented stable minimal surface immersed in H^2xR, it has infinite total curvature. In particular, we infer that a minimal graph M in H^2xR whose asymptotic boundary is a graph over an arc of the asymptotic boundary of H^2, different from the asymptotic boundary of the boundary of M, has infinite total curvature. Consequently, if M is a stable minimal surface immersed into H^2xR with…
We consider the expected value for the total curvature of a random closed polygon. Numerical experiments have suggested that as the number of edges becomes large, the difference between the expected total curvature of a random closed polygon and a random open polygon with the same number of turning angles approaches a positive constant. We show that this is true for a natural class of probability measures on polygons, and give a formula for the constant in terms of the moments of the edgelength distribution. We then consider the symmetric measure on closed polygons of fixed total length constr…
In this paper we obtain density estimates for compact surfaces immersed in R^n with total boundary curvature less than 4pi and with sufficiently small L^p norm of the mean curvature, p>2. Our results generalize the main results in [2]. We then apply our estimates to discuss the geometry and topology of such surfaces.
We prove that strong finite total curvature complete hypersurfaces of (n+1)-euclidean space are proper and diffeomorphic to a compact manifold minus finitely many points. With an additional condition, we also prove that the Gauss map of such hypersurfaces extends continuously to the punctures.
This paper proves that classical minimal surfaces of arbitrary topological type with total boundary curvature at most 4πmust be smoothly embedded. Related results are proved for varifolds and for soap film surfaces.
We prove that the total curvature of any planar graph with nonnegative combinatorial curvature is an integral multiple of $\frac{1}{12}.$ As a corollary, this answers a question proposed by T. Réti.
We prove that a minimal oriented stable annular end in H^2 x R whose asymptotic boundary is contained in two vertical lines has finite total curvature and converges to a vertical plane. Furthermore, if the end is embedded then it is a horizontal graph.
Laurent Hauswirth and Harold Rosenberg developed the theory of minimal surfaces with finite total curvature in $\H^2\times\R$. They showed that the total curvature of one such a surface must be a non-negative integer multiple of $-2π$. The first examples appearing in this context are vertical geodesic planes and Scherk minimal graphs over ideal polygonal domains. Other non simply-connected examples have been constructed recently. In the present paper, we show that the only complete minimal surfaces in $\H^2\times\R$ of total curvature $-2π$ are Scherk minimal graphs over ideal quadrilaterals. …
Bounds of total curvature and entropy are two common conditions placed on mean curvature flows. We show that these two hypotheses are equivalent for the class of ancient complete embedded smooth planar curve shortening flows, which are one-dimensional mean curvature flows. As an application, we give a short proof of the uniqueness of tangent flow at infinity of an ancient smooth complete non-compact curve shortening flow with finite entropy embedded in $\mathbb{R}^2$.
On a compact $n$-dimensional manifold $M$, it is well known that a critical metric of the total scalar curvature, restricted to the space of metrics with unit volume, is Einstein. It has been conjectured that a critical metric of the total scalar curvature, restricted to the space of metrics with constant scalar curvature of unit volume, will also be Einstein. It was shown that this conjecture is true when $M$ together with a critical metric has harmonic curvature or the metric is Bach flat. In this paper, we tried to prove this conjecture with a divergence-free Bach tensor.
Given a definable function f, enough differentiable, we study the continuity of the total curvature function t --> K(t), total curvature of the level {f=t}, and the total absolute curvature function t-->|K| (t), total absolute curvature of the level {f=t}. We show they admits at most finitely many discontinuities.
