Associated to every complete affine 3-manifold M with nonsolvable fundamental group is a noncompact hyperbolic surface S. We classify such complete affine structures when Sigma is homeomorphic to a three-holed sphere. In particular, for every such complete hyperbolic surface Sigma, the deformation space identifies with two opposite octants in R^3. Furthermore every M admits a fundamental polyhedron bounded by crooked planes. Therefore M is homeomorphic to an open solid handlebody of genus two. As an explicit application of this theory, we construct proper affine deformations of an arithmetic Fuchsian group inside Sp(4,Z).
A Margulis spacetime is a complete flat affine Lorentzian 3-manifold with free fundamental group. Associated to $M$ is a noncompact complete hyperbolic surface $Σ$. We study double extensions of $π_1 (M) \cong π_1 (Σ)$ when $Σ$ is homeomorphic to a projective plane minus two discs. We classify proper actions of this double extension on Minkowski space and show that there exist proper actions that do not admit crooked fundamental domains.
This paper applies the authors' forthcoming work, "Affine deformations of a three-holed sphere" in Lorentzian geometry to prove a result in hyperbolic geometry. Namely, an infinitesimal deformation of a hyperbolic structure of a three-holed sphere which infinitesimally lengthens the three boundary components infinitesimally lengthens every closed geodesic. The proof interprets the derivative of the geodesic length function as the Margulis invariant (signed marked Lorentzian length spectrum) of the corresponding affine deformation. The aforementioned results imply that the affine deformation is…
A Margulis spacetime is a complete flat Lorentzian 3-manifold M with free fundamental group. Associated to M is a noncompact complete hyperbolic surface S homotopy-equivalent to M. The purpose of this paper is to classify Margulis spacetimes when S is homeomorphic to a one-holed torus. We show that every such M decomposes into polyhedra bounded by crooked planes, corresponding to an ideal triangulation of S. This paper classifies and analyzes the structure of crooked ideal triangles, which play the same role for Margulis spacetimes as ideal triangles play for hyperbolic surfaces. This extends …
The SL(3,C)-representation variety R of a free group F arises naturally by considering surface group representations for a surface with boundary. There is a SL(3,C)-action on the coordinate ring of R. The geometric points of the subring of invariants of this action is an affine variety X. The points of X parametrize isomorphism classes of completely reducible representations. The coordinate ring C[X] is a complex Poisson algebra with respect to a presentation of F imposed by the surface. In previous work, we have worked out the bracket on all generators when the surface is a three-holed sphere…
Luo and Tan gave a new identity for hyperbolic surfaces with/without geodesic boundary in terms of dilogarithms of the lengths of simple closed geodesics on embedded three-holed spheres or one-holed tori. However, the identity was trivial for a hyperbolic one-holed torus with geodesic boundary. In this paper we adapt the argument from Luo and Tan to give an identity for hyperbolic tori with one geodesic boundary or cusp in terms of dilogarithm functions on the set of lengths of simple closed geodesics on the torus. As a corollary, we are also able to express the Luo-Tan identity as a sum over …
The group Gamma of automorphisms of the polynomial kappa(x,y,z) = x^2 + y^2 + z^2 - xyz -2 is isomorphic to PGL(2,Z) semi-direct product with (Z/2+Z/2). For t in R, Gamma-action on ktR = kappa^{-1}(t) intersect R displays rich and varied dynamics. The action of Gamma preserves a Poisson structure defining a Gamma-invariant area form on each ktR. For t < 2, the action of Gamma is properly discontinuous on the four contractible components of ktR and ergodic on the compact component (which is empty if t < -2). The contractible components correspond to Teichmueller spaces of (possibly singular) hy…
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 give a survey of the theory of affine spheres, emphasizing the convex cases and relationsships to Monge-Ampere equations and geometric structures on manifolds.
In this paper by using Teichmuller theory of a sphere with four holes/orbifold points, we obtain a system of flat coordinates on the general affine cubic surface having a D_4 singularity at the origin. We show that the Goldman bracket on the geodesic functions on the four-holed/orbifold sphere coincides with the Etingof-Ginzburg Poisson bracket on the affine D_4 cubic. We prove that this bracket is the image under the Riemann-Hilbert map of the Poisson Lie bracket on the direct sum of three copies of sl_2. We realise the action of the mapping class group by the action of the braid group on the…
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.
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.
The area distance to a convex plane curve is an important concept in computer vision. In this paper we describe a strong link between area distances and improper affine spheres. This link makes possible a better understanding of both theories. The concepts of the theory of affine spheres lead to a new definition of an area distance on the outer part of a convex plane arc. Also, based on the theory of discrete affine spheres, we propose fast algorithms to compute the area distances. On the other hand, area distances provide a good geometrical understanding of improper affine spheres.
We classify all regular three-dimensional convex cones which possess an automorphism group of dimension at least two, and provide analytic expressions for the complete hyperbolic affine spheres which are asymptotic to the boundaries of these cones. The affine spheres are represented by explicit hypersurface immersions into three-dimensional real space. The generic member of the family of immersions is given by elliptic integrals.
It is proved that the equality $Δ\ln|κ-λ|=6κ$, where $κ$ is the Gaussian curvature of a metric tensor g on a 2-dimensional manifold is a sufficient and necessary condition for local realizability of the metric as the Blaschke metric of some affine sphere.
There exists a well known construction which allows to associate with two hyperbolic affine spheres $f_i: M_i^{n_i} \to \mathbb R^{n_i+1}$ a new hyperbolic affine sphere immersion of $I \times M_1 \times M_2$ into $\mathbb R^{n_1+n_2+3}$. In this paper we deal with the inverse problem: how to determine from properties of the difference tensor whether a given hyperbolic affine sphere immersion of a manifold $M^n \to \mathbb R^{n+1}$ can be decomposed in such a way.
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…
Hildebrand classified all semi-homogeneous cones in $\mathbb{R}^3$ and computed their corresponding complete hyperbolic affine spheres. We compute isothermal parametrizations for Hildebrand's new examples. After giving their affine metrics and affine cubic forms, we construct the whole associated family for each of Hildebrand's examples. The generic member of these affine spheres is given by Weierstrass $\mathscr{P}, ~ζ~\text{and} ~σ$ functions. In general any regular convex cone in $\mathbb{R}^3$ has a natural associated $S^1$-family of such cones, which deserve further studies.
Improper affine spheres have played an important role in the development of geometric methods for the study of the Hessian one equation. Here, we review most of the advances we have made in this direction during the last twenty years.
We will first clarify the loop group formulations for both hyperbolic and elliptic definite affine spheres in R^3. Then we classify the rational elements with 3 poles or 6 poles in a real twisted loop group, and compute dressing actions of them on such surfaces. Some new examples with pictures will be produced at last.
The nonzero level sets of a homogeneous, logarithmically homogeneous, or translationally homogeneous function are affine spheres if and only if the Hessian determinant of the function is a multiple of a power or an exponential of the function. In particular, the nonzero level sets of a homogeneous polynomial are proper affine spheres if some power of it equals a nonzero multiple of its Hessian determinant. The relative invariants of real forms of regular irreducible prehomogeneous vector spaces yield many such polynomials which are moreover irreducible. For example, the nonzero level sets of t…
We study the equation for improper (parabolic) affine spheres from the view point of contact geometry and provide the generic classification of singularities appearing in geometric solutions to the equation as well as their duals. We also show the results for surfaces of constant Gaussian curvatureand for developable surfaces. In particular we confirm that generic singularities appearing in such a surface are just cuspidal edges and swallowtails.
Counting integer points on the Markoff cubic is closely related to questions in hyperbolic geometry. In a previous work with Igor Rivin we investigated the regularity of the geodesic length function for a punctured torus. Here we extend this work to the three holed sphere and related orbifolds.
The nonzero level sets in $n$-dimensional flat affine space of a translationally homogeneous function are improper affine spheres if and only if the Hessian determinant of the function is equal to a nonzero constant multiple of the $n$th power of the function. The exponentials of the characteristic polynomials of certain left-symmetric algebras yield examples of such functions whose level sets are analogues of the generalized Cayley hypersurface of Eastwood-Ezhov. There are found purely algebraic conditions sufficient for the characteristic polynomial of the left-symmetric algebra to have the …
The invariant metric affine connections on Berger spheres which are Einstein with skew torsion are determined in both Riemannian and Lorentzian signature. Expressions of such connections are explicitly given. In particular, every Berger sphere with Lorentzian signature admits invariant metric affine connections Einstein with skew-torsion up to $\mathbb{S}^3$. For Riemannian signature, the existence of such connections strongly depends on the dimension of the sphere and on the scale of the deformation used for the Berger metric. In particular, there are Riemaniann Berger spheres, not Einstein, …
A Riemann-Cartan manifold is a Riemannian manifold endowed with an affine connection which is compatible with the metric tensor. This affine connection is not necessarily torsion free. Under the assumption that the manifold is a homogeneous space, the notion of homogeneous Riemann-Cartan space is introduced in a natural way. For the case of the odd dimensional spheres $\mathbb{S}^{2n+1}$ viewed as homogeneous spaces of the special unitary groups, the classical Nomizu's Theorem on invariant connections has permitted to obtain an algebraical description of all the connections which turn the sphe…
We prove that any simply connected special Kaehler manifold admits a canonical immersion as a parabolic affine hypersphere. As an application, we associate a parabolic affine hypersphere to any nondegenerate holomorphic function. Also we show that a classical result of Calabi and Pogorelov on parabolic spheres implies Lu's theorem on complete special Kaehler manifolds with a positive definite metric.
As seen in the works of Calabi, Cheng-Yau and Loftin, affine sphere equations have a close relationship with Kaehler-Einstein metrics. The main purpose of this note is to show that an equation analogous to those of hyperbolic affine spheres arises naturally from Kaehler-Einstein metrics on Einstein toric surfaces. The case for the remaining toric surfaces with Kaehler-Ricci solitons will also be discussed.
For every proper convex cone $K \subset \mathbb R^3$ there exists a unique complete hyperbolic affine 2-sphere with mean curvature $-1$ which is asymptotic to the boundary of the cone. Two cones are associated if the corresponding affine spheres can be mapped to each other by an orientation-preserving isometry. This equivalence relation is generated by the groups $SL(3,\mathbb R)$ and $S^1$, where the former acts by linear transformations of the ambient space, and the latter by multiplication of the cubic holomorphic differential of the affine sphere by unimodular complex constants. The action…
We give the best possible upper bound for the number of exceptional values of the Lagrangian Gauss map of complete improper affine fronts in the affine three-space. We also obtain the sharp estimate for weakly complete case. As an application of this result, we provide a new and simple proof of the parametric affine Bernstein problem for improper affine spheres. Moreover we get the same estimate for the ratio of canonical forms of weakly complete flat fronts in hyperbolic three-space.
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 Lagrangian submanifold $L$ of the affine symplectic $2n$-space, one can canonically and uniquely define a center-chord and a special improper affine sphere of dimension $2n$, both of whose sets of singularities contain $L$. Although these improper affine spheres (IAS) always present other singularities away from $L$ (the off-shell singularities studied in our previous paper), they may also present singularities other than $L$ which are arbitrarily close to $L$, the so called singularities "on shell". These on-shell singularities possess a hidden $\mathbb Z_2$ symmetry that is absent fr…
We give a gauge invariant characterisation of the elliptic affine sphere equation and the closely related Tzitzéica equation as reductions of real forms of $SL(3, \C)$ anti--self--dual Yang--Mills equations by two translations, or equivalently as a special case of the Hitchin equation. We use the Loftin--Yau--Zaslow construction to give an explicit expression for a six--real dimensional semi--flat Calabi--Yau metric in terms of a solution to the affine-sphere equation and show how a subclass of such metrics arises from 3rd Painlevé transcendents.
There are exactly two different types of bi-dimensional improper affine spheres: the non-convex ones can be modeled by the center-chord transform of a pair of planar curves while the convex ones can be modeled by a holomorphic map. In this paper, we show that both constructions can be generalized to arbitrary even dimensions: the former class corresponds to the center-chord transform of a pair of Lagrangian submanifolds while the latter is related to special Kähler manifolds. Furthermore, we show that the improper affine spheres obtained in this way are solutions of certain exterior differenti…
This paper is a continuation of our paper math.AG/0205321 where we have built a combinatorial model for the torus fibrations of Calabi-Yau toric hypersurfaces. This part addresses the connection between the model torus fibration and the complex and Kähler geometry of the hypersurfaces.
We study the real Monge-Ampère equation in two and three dimensions, both from the point of view of the SYZ conjecture, where solutions give rise to semi-flat Calabi-Yau's and in affine differential geometry, where solutions yield parabolic affine sphere hypersurfaces. We find explicit examples, connect the holomorphic function representation to Hitchin's description of special Lagrangian moduli space, and construct the developing map explicitly for a singularity corresponding to the type $I_n$ elliptic fiber (after hyper-Kähler rotation). Following Baues and Cortés, we show that various types…
In the paper two important theorems about complete affine spheres are generalized to the case of statistical structures on abstract manifolds. The assumption about constant sectional curvature is replaced by the assumption that the curvature satisfies some inequalities.
We discuss the local differential geometry of convex affine spheres in $\re^3$ and of minimal Lagrangian surfaces in Hermitian symmetric spaces. In each case, there is a natural metric and cubic differential holomorphic with respect to the induced conformal structure: these data come from the Blaschke metric and Pick form for the affine spheres and from the induced metric and second fundamental form for the minimal Lagrangian surfaces. The local geometry, at least for main cases of interest, induces a natural frame whose structure equations arise from the affine Toda system for $\mathfrak a^{(…
Let $Δ$ be a 2-sphere endowed with an affine structure away from a finite set of points $P \subset Δ$, and assume that the monodromy of the associated connection $\nabla$ on $Δ\setminus P$ around any point from $P$ is unipotent. I show that there exists a pseudo-metric tensor with distribution coefficients on $Δ$ that is non-degenerate on $Δ\setminus P$ and that locally is of the form $\nabla d f$ for some convex function $f$. In particular, if $X_\infty$ is the canonical nearby fibre of a Type III degeneration of K3 surfaces in Kulikov form, $Δ_X \cong S^2$ is the dual intersection complex of…
We investigate octonion product deformations coming from the parallelizable torsion of the 7-sphere $S^7$, obtaining a family of geometries from solutions of the Lagrangian formalism movement equations. This can be achieved by analyzing the spontaneous compactification $M_4\times S^7$, where $M_4$ is a Lorentzian $4$-dimensional manifold. Besides the usual Riemannian geometry and two others proposed by Cartan and Schouten, solutions in geometries with torsion and more general seven-dimensional spaces are obtained. Such formalism may by subsequently derived over the 7-sphere $S^7$, locally give…
We present in this article a survey of recent results in value distribution theory for the Gauss maps of several classes of immersed surfaces in space forms, for example, minimal surfaces in Euclidean $n$-space ($n$=3 or 4), improper affine spheres in the affine 3-space and flat surfaces in hyperbolic 3-space. In particular, we elucidate the geometric background of their results.
We give some concrete examples of moduli spaces of connections. Precisely, we explain how to explicitly construct the moduli spaces of rank 2 fuchsian systems and logarithmic connections on the Riemann sphere with 4 poles. The former ones are affine cubic surfaces; the latter ones are analytically isomorphic to affine surfaces but not algebraically: they do not carry non constant regular functions. We end with some remark on arbitrary number of poles.
