Curves in ${\mathbb R}^n$ for which the ratios between two consecutive curvatures are constant are characterized by the fact that their tangent indicatrix is a geodesic in a flat torus. For $n= 3,4$, spherical curves of this kind are also studied and compared with intrinsic helices in the sphere.
For an arbitrary nondegenerate curve in a pseudo-Riemann\-ian (including Riemannian) 2-manifold, we express the equi-affine curvature with the help of the Frenet (geodesic) curvature of this curve.
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.
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.
In this paper, the Cartan frames and the equi-affine curvatures are described with the help of the Frenet frames and the Frenet curvatures of a non-null and non-degenerate curve in a 3-dimensional pseudo-Riemannian manifold. The constancy of the Frenet curvatures of such a curve always implies the constancy of the equi-affine curvatures. We show that the converse statement does not hold in general. Finally, we study the equi-affine curvatures of null curves in 3-dimensional Lorentzian manifolds, and prove that they are related to their pseudo-torsion.
We use ODEs and symmetry arguments to construct closed constant curvature space curves, first on cylinders, next on tori, at last with the Frenet-Serret equations.
Let $X_0, \widetilde{X}$ be two smooth, closed and locally convex curves in the plane with same winding number. A curvature flow with a nonlocal term is constructed to evolve $X_0$ into $\widetilde{X}$. It is proved that this flow exits globally, preserves both the local convexity and the elastic energy of the evolving curve. If the two curves have same elastic energy then the curvature flow deforms the evolving curve into the target curve $\widetilde{X}$ as time tends to infinity.
We prove the existence of immersed closed curves of constant geodesic curvature in an arbitrary Riemannian 2-sphere for almost every prescribed curvature. To achieve this, we develop a min-max scheme for a weighted length functional.
We discuss some consequences of the existence of the holomorphic quadratic Hopf differential on a conformally immersed constant mean curvature topological disc with analytic boundary. In particular, we derive a formula for the mean curvature as a weighted average of the normal curvature of the boundary curve, and a condition for the surface to be totally umbilic in terms of the normal curvature.
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 $\mathbb{R}^2$.
In this paper, we investigate the geometry of the moduli space of curves by using the curvature properties of direct image sheaves of vector bundles. We show that the moduli space $(M_g, ω_{WP})$ of curves with genus $g>1$ has dual-Nakano negative and semi-Nakano-negative curvature, and in particular, it has non-positive Riemannain curvature operator and also non-positive complex sectional curvature. As applications, we prove that any submanifold in $M_g$ which is totally geodesic in $A_g$ with finite volume must be a ball quotient.
Considering Riemannian submersions, we find necessary and sufficient conditions for when sub-Riemannian normal geodesics project to curves of constant first geodesic curvature or constant first and vanishing second geodesic curvatures. We describe a canonical extension of the sub-Riemannian metric and study geometric properties of the obtained Riemannian manifold. This work contains several examples illustrating the results.
We describe the curves of constant (geodesic) curvature and torsion in the three-dimensional round sphere. These curves are the trajectory of a point whose motion is the superposition of two circular motions in orthogonal planes. The global behavior may be periodic or the curve may be dense in a Clifford torus embedded in the three-sphere. This behavior is very different from that of helices in three-dimensional Euclidean space, which also have constant curvature and torsion.
We deal with irregular curves contained in smooth, closed, and compact surfaces. For curves with finite total intrinsic curvature, a weak notion of parallel transport of tangent vector fields is well-defined in the Sobolev setting. Also, the angle of the parallel transport is a function with bounded variation, and its total variation is equal to an energy functional that depends on the "tangential" component of the derivative of the tantrix of the curve. We show that the total intrinsic curvature of irregular curves agrees with such an energy functional. By exploiting isometric embeddings, the…
In this paper we consider surfaces with one or two families of spherical curvature lines. We show that every surface with a family of spherical curvature lines can locally be generated by a pair of initial data: a suitable curve of Lie sphere transformations and a spherical Legendre curve. We then provide conditions on the initial data for which such a surface is Lie applicable, an integrable class of surfaces that includes cmc and pseudospherical surfaces. In particular we show that a Lie applicable surface with exactly one family of spherical curvature lines must be generated by the lift of …
If a piece of the contour of a picture is missing to the eye vision, then the brain tends to complete it using some kind of sub-Riemannian geodesics of the unit tangent bundle of the plane, R2xS1. These geodesics can be obtained by lifting extremal curves of a total curvature type energy in the plane. We completely solve this variational problem, geometrically. Moreover, we also show a way of constructing rotational surfaces of constant negative curvature in R3 by evolving these extremal curves under their associated binormal flow with prescribed velocity. Finally, we prove that, locally, all …
In this paper results from the differential geometry of curves are extended from normed planes to gauge planes which are obtained by neglecting the symmetry axiom. Based on the gauge analogue of the notion of Birkhoff orthogonality from Banach space theory, we study all curvature types of curves in gauge planes, thus generalizing their complete classification for normed planes. We show that (as in the subcase of normed planes) there are four such types, and we call them analogously Minkowski, normal, circular, and arc-length curvature. We study relations between them and extend, based on this,…
We deal with a notion of weak binormal and weak principal normal for non-smooth curves of the Euclidean space with finite total curvature and total absolute torsion. By means of piecewise linear methods, we first introduce the analogous notation for polygonal curves, where the polarity property is exploited, and then make use of a density argument. Both our weak binormal and normal are rectifiable curves which naturally live in the projective plane. In particular, the length of the weak binormal agrees with the total absolute torsion of the given curve. Moreover, the weak normal is the vector …
It is known that the so-called rotation minimizing (RM) frames allow for a simple and elegant characterization of geodesic spherical curves in Euclidean, hyperbolic, and spherical spaces through a certain linear equation involving the coefficients that dictate the RM frame motion (da Silva, da Silva in Mediterr J Math 15:70, 2018). Here, we shall prove the converse, i.e., we show that if all geodesic spherical curves on a Riemannian manifold are characterized by a certain linear equation, then all the geodesic spheres with a sufficiently small radius are totally umbilical and, consequently, th…
The theory of classical types of curves in normed planes is not strongly developed. In particular, the knowledge on existing concepts of curvatures of planar curves is widespread and not systematized in the literature. Giving a comprehensive overview on geometric properties of and relations between all introduced curvature concepts, we try to fill this gap. Certainly, this yields a basis for further research and also for possible extensions of the whole existing framework. In addition, we derive various new results referring in full broadness to the variety of known curvature types in normed p…
Given a pair of real functions $(k,f)$, we study the conditions they must satisfy for $k+λf$ to be the curvature in the arc-length of a closed planar curve for all real $λ$. Several equivalent conditions are pointed out, certain periodic behaviours are shown as essential and a family of such pairs is explicitely constructed. The discrete counterpart of the problem is also studied. Finally, the characterization obtained is used to show that a sufficient analogue of the 4-vertex theorem cannot be developed.
Motivated by the classical Euler elastic curves, David A. Singer posed in 1999 the problem of determining a plane curve whose curvature is given in terms of its position. We propound the same question in Lorentz-Minkowski plane, focusing on spacelike and timelike curves. In this article, we study those curves in $\mathbb{L}^2$ whose curvature depends on the Lorentzian pseudodistance from the origin, and those ones whose curvature depends on the Lorentzian pseudodistance through the horizontal or vertical geodesic to a fixed lightlike geodesic. Making use of the notions of geometric angular mom…
In this paper, we classify the rotational surfaces with constant skew curvature in $3$-space forms. We also give a variational characterization of the profile curves of these surfaces as critical points of a curvature energy involving the exponential of the curvature of the curve. Finally, we provide a converse process to produce all rotational surfaces with constant skew curvature based on the evolution of a critical curve under the flow of its binormal vector field with prescribed velocity.