At each point in an immersed surface in $\mathbb R^4$ there is a curvature ellipse in the normal plane which codifies all the local second order geometry of the surface. More recently, at the singular point of a corank 1 singular surface in $\mathbb R^3$, a curvature parabola in the normal plane which codifies all the local second order geometry has been defined. When projecting a regular surface in $\mathbb R^4$ to $\mathbb R^3$ in a tangent direction corank 1 singularities appear generically. The projection has a cross-cap singularity unless the direction of projection is asymptotic, where more degenerate singularities can appear. In this paper we relate the geometry of an immersed surface in $\mathbb R^4$ at a certain point to the geometry of the projection of the surface to $\mathbb R^3$ at the singular point. In particular we relate the curvature ellipse of the surface to the curvature parabola of its singular projection.
We classify the Lagrangian orientable surfaces in complex space forms with the property that the ellipse of curvature is always a circle. As a consequence, we obtain new characterizations of the Clifford torus of the complex projective plane and of the Whitney spheres in the complex projective, complex Euclidean and complex hyperbolic planes.
At any point of a surface in the four-dimensional Euclidean space we consider the geometric configuration consisting of two figures: the tangent indicatrix, which is a conic in the tangent plane, and the normal curvature ellipse. We show that the basic geometric classes of surfaces in the four-dimensional Euclidean space, determined by conditions on their invariants, can be interpreted in terms of the properties of the two geometric figures. We give some non-trivial examples of surfaces from the classes in consideration.
Using the complex parabolic rotations of holomorphic null curves in ${\mathbb{C}}^{4}$, we transform minimal surfaces in Euclidean space ${\mathbb{R}}^{3} \subset {\mathbb{R}}^{4}$ to a family of degenerate minimal surfaces in Euclidean space ${\mathbb{R}}^{4}$. Applying our deformation to holomorphic null curves in ${\mathbb{C}}^{3} \subset {\mathbb{C}}^{4}$ induced by helicoids in ${\mathbb{R}}^{3}$, we discover new minimal surfaces in ${\mathbb{R}}^{4}$ foliated by conic sections with eccentricity grater than $1$: hyperbolas or straight lines. Applying our deformation to holomorphic null cu…
For singular corank 1 surfaces in $\mathbb R^3$ we introduce a distinguished normal vector called the axial vector. Using this vector and the curvature parabola we define a new type of curvature called the axial curvature, which generalizes the singular curvature for frontal type singularities. We then study contact properties of the surface with respect to the plane orthogonal to the axial vector and show how they are related to the axial curvature. Finally, for certain fold type singularities, we relate the axial curvature with the Gaussian curvature of an appropriate blow up.
We study the geometry of surfaces in $\mathbb{R}^{4}$ with corank $1$ singularities. For such surfaces the singularities are isolated and at each point we define the curvature parabola in the normal space. This curve codifies all the second order information of the surface. Also, using this curve we define asymptotic and binormal directions, the umbilic curvature and study the flat geometry of the surface. It is shown that we can associate to this singular surface a regular one in $\mathbb{R}^{4}$ and relate their geometry.
The indicatrix or curvature ellipse and the characteristic curve of a surface in $\mathbf R^4$ are presented, as well as the projective duality connecting them. The characterisation of points in the surfaces as elliptic, parabolic and hyperbolic points, and the inflection points, are also discussed.
Superconformal surfaces in Euclidean space are the ones for which the ellipse of curvature at any point is a nondegenerate circle. They can be characterized as the surfaces for which a well-known pointwise inequality relating the intrinsic Gauss curvature with the extrinsic normal and mean curvatures, due to Wintgen (\cite{Wi}) and Guadalupe-Rodríguez (\cite{GR}) for any codimension, reaches equality at all points. In this paper, we show that any pedal surface to a $2$-isotropic Euclidean surface is superconformal. Opposed to almost all known examples, superconformal surfaces in this class are…
For a polygon $x=(x_j)_{j\in \mathbb{Z}}$ in $\mathbb{R}^n$ we consider the midpoints polygon $(M(x))_j=\left(x_j+x_{j+1}\right)/2\,.$ We call a polygon a soliton of the midpoints mapping $M$ if its midpoints polygon is the image of the polygon under an invertible affine map. We show that a large class of these polygons lie on an orbit of a one-parameter subgroup of the affine group acting on $\mathbb{R}^n.$ These smooth curves are also characterized as solutions of the differential equation $\dot{c}(t)=Bc (t)+d$ for a matrix $B$ and a vector $d.$ For $n=2$ these curves are curves of constant …
In this paper we investigate $m$-dimensional complete minimal submanifolds in Euclidean spheres with index of relative nullity at least $m-2$ at any point. These are austere submanifolds in the sense of Harvey and Lawson \cite{harvey} and were initially studied by Bryant \cite{br}. For any dimension and codimension there is an abundance of non-complete examples fully described by Dajczer and Florit \cite{DF2} in terms of a class of surfaces, called elliptic, for which the ellipse of curvature of a certain order is a circle at any point. Under the assumption of completeness, it turns out that a…
Wintgen proved in [P. Wintgen, Sur l'inégalité de Chen-Willmore, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, 288 (1979), 993--995] that the Gauss curvature $K$ and the normal curvature $K^D$ of a surface in the Euclidean 4-space $E^4$ satisfy $$K+|K^D|\leq H^2,$$ where $H^2$ is the squared mean curvature. A surface $M$ in $\E4$ is called a {Wintgen ideal} surface if it satisfies the equality case of the inequality identically. Wintgen ideal surfaces in $E^4$ form an important family of surfaces; namely, surfaces with circular ellipse of curvature. In this paper, we provide a brief survey on some old and recent re…
Suppose curves are moving by curvature in a plane, but one embeds the plane in $R^3$ and looks at the plane from an angle. Then circles shrinking to a round point would appear to be ellipses shrinking to an ``elliptical point,'' and the surface energy would appear to be anisotropic as would the mobility. The result of this paper is that if one uses the apparent surface energy and the apparent mobility, then the motion by weighted curvature with mobility in the apparent plane is the same as motion by curvature in the original plane but then viewed from the angle. This result applies not only to…
We define two transforms between minimal surfaces with non-circular ellipse of curvature in the 5-sphere, and show how this enables us to construct, from one such surface, a sequence of such surfaces. We also use the transforms to show how to associate to such a surface a corresponding ruled minimal Lagrangian submanifold of complex projective 3-space. We illustrate this explicitly in the case of bipolar minimal surfaces.
In this paper are studied the simplest patterns of axial curvature lines (along which the normal curvature vector is at a vertex of the ellipse of curvature) near a critical point of a surface mapped into R4. These critical points, where the rank of the mapping drops from 2 to 1, occur isolated in generic one parameter families of mappings of surfaces into R4. As the parameter crosses a critical bifurcation value, at which the mapping has a critical point, it is described how the axial umbilic points, which are the singularities of the axial curvature configurations at regular points, move alo…
Minimal surfaces of general type in Euclidean 4-space are characterized with the conditions that the ellipse of curvature at any point is centered at this point and has two different principal axes. Any minimal surface of general type locally admits geometrically determined parameters - canonical parameters. In such parameters the Gauss curvature and the normal curvature satisfy a system of two natural partial differential equations and determine the surface up to a motion. For any minimal surface parameterized by canonical parameters we obtain Weierstrass representations - canonical Weierstra…
We construct simply connected, complete, non-$CMC$ biconservative surfaces in the $3$-dimensional hyperbolic space $\mathbb{H}^3$ in an intrinsic and extrinsic way. We obtain three families of such surfaces, and, for each surface, the set of points where the gradient of the mean curvature function does not vanish is dense and has two connected components. In the intrinsic approach, we first construct a simply connected, complete abstract surface and then prove that it admits a unique biconservative immersion in $\mathbb{H}^3$. Working extrinsically, we use the images of the explicit parametric…
We use normal sections to relate the curvature locus of regular (resp. singular corank 1) 3-manifolds in $\mathbb{R}^6$ (resp. $\mathbb R^5$) with regular (resp. singular corank 1) surfaces in $\mathbb R^5$ (resp. $\mathbb R^4$). For example we show how to generate a Roman surface by a family of ellipses different to Steiner's way. Furthermore, we give necessary conditions for the 2-jet of the parametrisation of a singular 3-manifold to be in a certain orbit in terms of the topological types of the curvature loci of the singular surfaces obtained as normal sections. We also study the relations…
A canonical normal null direction on a spacelike surface in the four dimensional Minkowski space $\mathbb{R}^{3,1}$ is a parallel vector field $Z$ on $\mathbb{R}^{3,1}$ such that the normal component of $Z$ on the surface is a lightlike vector field. We describe the geometric properties of a spacelike surface endowed with a canonical normal null direction and we obtain some characterizations of these surfaces. Moreover, using their Gauss map we study other properties of these surface: the associated ellipse of curvature and their asymptotic directions. Finally, we give two different ways to cr…
We deal with minimal surfaces in spheres that are locally isometric to a pseudoholomorphic curve in a totally geodesic $\mathbb{S}^{5}$ in the nearly K{ä}hler sphere $\mathbb{S}^6$. Being locally isometric to a pseudoholomorphic curve in $\mathbb{S}^5$ turns out to be equivalent to the Ricci-like condition $Δ\log(1-K)=6K,$ where $K$ is the Gaussian curvature of the induced metric. Besides flat minimal surfaces in spheres, direct sums of surfaces in the associated family of pseudoholomorphic curves in $\mathbb{S}^5$ do satisfy this Ricci-like condition. Surfaces in both classes are exceptional …
Here are described the axiumbilic points that appear in generic one parameter families of surfaces immersed in R4. At these points the ellipse of curvature of the immersion, Little, Garcia - Sotomayor has equal axes. A review is made on the basic preliminaries on axial curvature lines and the associated axiumbilic points which are the singularities of the fields of principal, mean axial lines}, axial crossings and the quartic differential equation defining them. The Lie-Cartan vector field suspension of the quartic differential equation, giving a line field tangent to the Lie-Cartan surface (i…
