On a special case of the intersection of quadric and cubic surfaces

The intersection curve between two surfaces in three-dimensional real projective space RP³ is important in the study of computer graphics and solid modelling. However, much of the past work has been directed towards the intersection of two quadric surfaces. In this paper we study the intersection curve between a quadric and a cubic surface and its projection onto the plane at infinity. Formulas for the plane and space curves are given for the intersection of a quadric and a cubic surface. A family of cubic surfaces that give the same space curve when we intersect them with a quadric surface is found. By generalizing the methods in Wang et al. (2002) [6] that are used to parametrize the space curve between two quadric surfaces, we give a parametrization for the intersection curve between a quadric and a cubic surface when the intersection has a singularity of order 3.     

Evolution of curves on a surface driven by the geodesic curvature and external force

We study a flow of closed curves on a given graph surface driven by the geodesic curvature and external force. Using vertical projection of surface curves to the plane we show how the geodesic curvature-driven flow can be reduced to a solution of a fully nonlinear system of parabolic differential equations. We show that the flow of surface curves is gradient-like, i.e. there exists a Lyapunov functional nonincreasing along trajectories. Special attention is placed on the analysis of closed stationary surface curves. We present sufficient conditions for their dynamic stability. Several computational examples of evolution of surface curves driven by the geodesic curvature and external force on various surfaces are presented in this article. We also discuss a link between the geodesic flow and the edge detection problem arising from the image segmentation theory.     

On Some Classical Methods to Improve Algebraic Curves and Surfaces

First, a modern presentation of the theory of the Halphen transform is given. This method associates to a plane projective curve C, once a general conic has been chosen, another birationally equivalent plane curve, whose singularities are simpler than those of C. Repeating, a curve is obtained whose only singularities are nodes. Next, it is studied how to apply this process to a family of plane curves. With this technique it is possible to transform a given family (with irreducible general member) into one where, generically, the curves are nodal. Finally, it is studied a similar process, called the Halphen–Picard transformation, for surfaces in three-space. By suitably reiterating this procedure, a surface can be transformed into a birationally equivalent one (in the same projective space), such that the sections with planes in a general pencil are, generically, nodal curves.     

Oriented matroids and complete-graph embeddings on surfaces

We provide a link between topological graph theory and pseudoline arrangements from the theory of oriented matroids. We investigate and generalize a function f that assigns to each simple pseudoline arrangement with an even number of elements a pair of complete-graph embeddings on a surface. Each element of the pair keeps the information of the oriented matroid we started with. We call a simple pseudoline arrangement triangular, when the cells in the cell decomposition of the projective plane are 2-colorable and when one color class of cells consists of triangles only. Precisely for triangular pseudoline arrangements, one element of the image pair of f is a triangular complete-graph embedding on a surface. We obtain all triangular complete-graph embeddings on surfaces this way, when we extend the definition of triangular complete pseudoline arrangements in a natural way to that of triangular curve arrangements on surfaces in which each pair of curves has a point in common where they cross. Thus Ringel's results on the triangular complete-graph embeddings can be interpreted as results on curve arrangements on surfaces. Furthermore, we establish the relationship between 2-colorable curve arrangements and Petrie dual maps. A data structure, called intersection pattern is provided for the study of curve arrangements on surfaces. Finally we show that an orientable surface of genus g admits a complete curve arrangement with at most 2g+1 curves in contrast to the non-orientable surface where the number of curves is not bounded.     

Computing parallel curves on parametric surfaces

Generating parallel curves on parametric surfaces is an important issue in many industrial settings. Given an initial curve (called the base curve or generator) on a parametric surface, the goal is to obtain curves on the surface that are parallel to the generator. By parallel curves we mean curves that are at a given distance from the generator, where distance is measured point-wise along certain characteristic curves (on the surface) orthogonal to the generator. Except for a few particular cases, computing these parallel curves is a very difficult and challenging problem. In fact, only partial, incomplete solutions have been reported so far in the literature. In this paper we introduce a simple yet efficient method to fill this gap. In clear contrast with other existing techniques, the most important feature of our method is its generality: it can be successfully applied to any differentiable parametric surface and to any kind of characteristic curves on surfaces. To evaluate our proposal, some illustrative examples (not addressed with previous methods) for the cases of section, vector-field, and geodesic parallels are discussed. Our experimental results show the excellent performance of the method even for the complex case of NURBS surfaces.     

Smooth curves on a cone which pass through its vertex

We obtain results concerning the existence of smooth curves on the cone over a (possibly singular) plane curve. As an application, these results are used to prove the existence of certain smooth space curves which are the set-theoretic complete intersection of a cone with some other surface.     

二阶曲线间的射影映射

平面上的射影变换,将二阶曲线变为另一二阶曲线,这个射影变换也可以称为这两个二阶曲线间的射影映射.若两个二阶曲线相切,则存在以切点为射影中心的两个二阶曲线间的射影映射;若两个二阶曲线相离,则存在以两个二阶曲线公切线交点为射影中心的射影映射;若两个二阶曲线相交,则存在以其中一交点为射影中心的两个二阶曲线间的射影映射.     

A note on constant geodesic curvature curves on surfaces

In this paper we are concerned with the structure of curves on surfaces whose geodesic curvature is a large constant. We first discuss the relation between closed curves with large constant geodesic curvature and the critical points of Gauss curvature. Then, we consider the case where a curve with large constant geodesic curvature is immersed in a domain which does not contain any critical point of the Gauss curvature.     

Real hypersurfaces foliated by totally real totally geodesic submanifolds

We bridge between submanifold geometry and curve theory. In the first half of this paper we classify real hypersurfaces in a complex projective plane and a complex hyperbolic plane all of whose integral curves γ of the characteristic vector field are totally real circles of the same curvature which is independent of the choice of γ in these planes. In the latter half, we construct real hypersurfaces which are foliated by totally real (Lagrangian) totally geodesic submanifolds in a complex hyperbolic plane, which provide one of the examples obtained in the classification.     

关于两曲面交线的不变量

本文研究了R3中相交子流形的不变量.利用活动标架法,得出了一个类似的欧拉公式. 即两曲面交线的挠率可以用两曲面的测地挠率、法曲率及两曲面的夹角表示.     

Intersection of a ruled surface with a free-form surface

This paper presents a simple method for computing the intersection curve of a ruled surface and a free-form surface. The basic idea is to reduce the problem of surface intersection to the one of projecting an appropriate curve such as a directrix of the ruled surface, along its indicatrix curve (direction vector field of its generating lines), onto the free-form surface; the projection curve is just the intersection curve. With techniques in classical differential geometry, we derive the differential equations of the intersection curve in the cases of parametrically and implicitly defined free-form surfaces. The intersection curve naturally inherits the parameter of the chosen directrix. Moreover, it is independent of the base surface geometry and its parameterization, and is obtained by numerically solving the initial-value problem for a system of first-order ordinary differential equations in the parametric domain associated to the surface representation for parametric case or in 3D space for implicit case. Some experimental examples are also given to demonstrate that the presented method is effective and potentially useful in computer aided design and computer graphics. An erratum to this article can be found at     

Locality and bounding-box quality of two-dimensional space-filling curves

Space-filling curves can be used to organise points in the plane into bounding-box hierarchies (such as R-trees). We develop measures of the bounding-box quality of space-filling curves that express how effective different space-filling curves are for this purpose. We give general lower bounds on the bounding-box quality measures and on locality according to Gotsman and Lindenbaum for a large class of space-filling curves. We describe a generic algorithm to approximate these and similar quality measures for any given curve. Using our algorithm we find good approximations of the locality and the bounding-box quality of several known and new space-filling curves. Surprisingly, some curves with relatively bad locality by Gotsman and Lindenbaum's measure, have good bounding-box quality, while the curve with the best-known locality has relatively bad bounding-box quality.     

Space filling curves and geodesic laminations

In this paper we study a class of connected fractals that admit a space filling curve. We prove that these curves are Hölder continuous and measure preserving. To these space filling curves we associate geodesic laminations satisfying among other properties that points joined by geodesics have the same image in the fractal under the space filling curve. The laminations help us to understand the geometry of the curves. We define an expanding dynamical system on the laminations.     

Linearity measure for curve segments

In this paper, we consider linearity measure for a bounded length curves. First, we define a new linearity measure for open curve segments, and then extend method to closed curves (contours). The derived measures (for both, open curve segments and closed curves) are invariant with respect to similarity transformations. The linearity measure for open curve segments picks the value 1 if and only if the measured open line segment is a perfect straight line segment while the established linearity measures for closed curves never reach 1, as preferred.     

Computing curve intersection by homotopy methods

Intersection problems are fundamental in computational geometry, geometric modeling and design and manufacturing applications, and can be reduced to solving polynomial systems. This paper introduces two homotopy methods, i.e. polyhedral homotopy method and linear homotopy method, to compute the intersections of two plane rational parametric curves. Extensive numerical examples show that computing curve intersection by homotopy methods has better accuracy, efficiency and robustness than by the Ehrlich-Aberth iteration method. Finally, some other applications of homotopy methods are also presented.     

Invariant measures for the horocycle flow on periodic hyperbolic surfaces

We classify the ergodic invariant Radon measures for the horocycle flow on geometrically infinite regular covers of compact hyperbolic surfaces. The method is to establish a bijection between these measures and the positive minimal eigenfunctions of the Laplacian of the surface. Two consequences arise: if the group of deck transformations G is of polynomial growth, then these measures are classified by the homomorphisms from G ₀ to ℝ where G ₀ ≤ G is a nilpotent subgroup of finite index; if the group is of exponential growth, then there may be more than one Radon measure which is invariant under the geodesic flow and the horocycle flow. We also treat regular covers of finite volume surfaces. The first author was supported by NSF grant 0500630. The second author was supported by NSF grant 0400687.     

Computing curve intersection by homotopy methods

Intersection problems are fundamental in computational geometry, geometric modeling and design and manufacturing applications, and can be reduced to solving polynomial systems. This paper introduces two homotopy methods, i.e. polyhedral homotopy method and linear homotopy method, to compute the intersections of two plane rational parametric curves. Extensive numerical examples show that computing curve intersection by homotopy methods has better accuracy, efficiency and robustness than by the Ehrlich–Aberth iteration method. Finally, some other applications of homotopy methods are also presented.     

Bisoptic curves of hyperbolas

Given a hyperbola, we study its bisoptic curves, i.e. the geometric locus of points through which passes a pair of tangents making a fixed angle θ or 180° ? θ. This question has been addressed in a previous paper for parabolas and for ellipses, showing hyperbolas and spiric curves, respectively. Here the requested geometric locus can be empty. If not, it is a punctured spiric curve, and two cases occur: the curve can have either one loop or two loops. Finally, we reconstruct explicitly the spiric curve as the intersection of a plane with a self-intersecting torus.     

Intersection graphs of curves in the plane

Let V be a set of curves in the plane. The corresponding intersection graph has V as the set of vertices, and two vertices are connected by an edge if and only if the two corresponding curves intersect in the plane.It is shown that the set of intersection graphs of curves in the plane is a proper subset of the set of all undirected graphs. Furthermore, the set of intersection graphs of straight line-segments is a proper subset of the set of the intersection graphs of curves in the plane. Finally, it is shown that for every k ≥ 3, the problem of determining whether an intersection graph of straight line-segments is k-colorable is NP-complete.     

Kinematics of coupler curves for spherical four-bar linkages based on new spherical adjoint approach

The local and global geometric properties of spherical coupler curves constitute spherical kinematics of spherical four-bar linkages, which can be adopted to reveal distribution characteristics of spherical coupler curves. New unified spherical adjoint approach is established in the paper to study both the local and global geometric properties in order to enrich the atlas of spherical coupler curves with geometric characteristics. Since the constraint curve of spherical four-bar linkage is a simple spherical circle and the spherical centrodes imply intrinsic properties of spherical motion of the coupler link, they are in their turn taken as the original curves in spherical adjoint approach to derive the geodesic curvature and analyze the local geometric characteristics of the spherical coupler curves. The conditions for different spherical double points, such as spherical crunodes, tacnodes and cusps of the spherical coupler curve are derived through the spherical adjoint approach. The spherical surface of the coupler link can be divided into several areas by the spherical moving centrode and the spherical tacnode's tracer curve. The points in each area trace spherical coupler curves with a specific shape. The characteristic points, which trace spherical coupler curves with cusp, geodesic inflection point, spherical Ball point, spherical Burmester point, crunode and tacnode can be readily located in the coupler link by the modelling procedure and the derived condition equations. In the end the distribution of spherical coupler curves with both local and global characteristics is elaborated. The research proposes systematic geometric properties of spherical coupler curves based on the new established approach, and provides a solid theoretical basis for the kinematic analysis and synthesis of the spherical four-bar linkages.