On Quadratic Differentials and Twisted Normal Maps of Surfaces in {\mathbb{S}^{2} \times\mathbb{R}} and {\mathbb{H}^{2} \times\mathbb{R}}

Given a Lie group G with a bi-invariant metric and a compact Lie subgroup K, Bittencourt and Ripoll used the homogeneous structure of quotient spaces to define a Gauss map ${\mathcal{N}:M^{n}\rightarrow{\mathbb{S}}}$ on any hypersupersurface ${M^{n}\looparrowright G/K}$ , where ${{\mathbb{S}}}$ is the unit sphere of the Lie algebra of G. It is proved in Bittencourt and Ripoll (Pacific J Math 224:45–64, 2006) that M ⁿ having constant mean curvature (CMC) is equivalent to ${\mathcal{N}}$ being harmonic, a generalization of a Ruh–Vilms theorem for submanifolds in the Euclidean space. In particular, when n = 2, the induced quadratic differential ${\mathcal{Q}_{\mathcal{N}}:=(\mathcal{N}^{\ast}g)^{2,0}}$ is holomorphic on CMC surfaces of G/K. In this paper, we take ${G/K={\mathbb{S}}^{2}\times{\mathbb{R}}}$ and compare ${\mathcal{Q}_{\mathcal{N}}}$ with the Abresch–Rosenberg differential ${\mathcal{Q}}$ , also holomorphic for CMC surfaces. It is proved that ${\mathcal{Q}=\mathcal{Q}_{\mathcal{N}}}$ , after showing that ${\mathcal{N}}$ is the twisted normal given by (1.5) herein. Then we define the twisted normal for surfaces in ${{\mathbb{H}}^{2}\times{\mathbb{R}}}$ and prove that ${\mathcal{Q}=\mathcal{Q}_{\mathcal{N}}}$ as well. Within the unified model for the two product spaces, we compute the tension field of ${\mathcal{N}}$ and extend to surfaces in ${{\mathbb{H}}^{2}\times{\mathbb{R}}}$ the equivalence between the CMC property and the harmonicity of ${\mathcal{N}.}$      

Constant Angle Property and Canonical Principal Directions for Surfaces in {\mathbb{M}^{2}(c) \times {\mathbb{R}_{1}}}

In this paper, we study surfaces in Lorentzian product spaces ${{\mathbb{M}^{2}(c) \times \mathbb{R}_1}}$ . We classify constant angle spacelike and timelike surfaces in ${{\mathbb{S}^{2} \times \mathbb{R}_1}}$ and ${{\mathbb{H}^{2} \times \mathbb{R}_1}}$ . Moreover, complete classifications of spacelike surfaces in ${{\mathbb{S}^{2} \times \mathbb{R}_1}}$ and ${{\mathbb{H}^{2} \times \mathbb{R}_1}}$ and timelike surfaces in ${{\mathbb{M}^{2}(c) \times \mathbb{R}_1}}$ with a canonical principal direction are obtained. Finally, a new characterization of the catenoid of the 3rd kind is established, as the only minimal timelike surface with a canonical principal direction in Minkowski 3–space.     

Uniqueness of minimal surfaces whose boundary is a horizontal graph and some Bernstein problems in {{\mathbb{H}^{2}\times \mathbb{R}}}

We deduce that a connected compact immersed minimal surface in ${{\mathbb{H}^{2}\times \mathbb{R}}}$ whose boundary has an injective horizontal projection on an admissible convex curve in ${\partial_\infty{\mathbb{H}^{2}\times \mathbb{R}}}$ , and satisfies an admissible bounded slope condition, is the Morrey’s solution of the Plateau problem and is a horizontal minimal graph. We prove that there is no entire horizontal minimal graph in ${{\mathbb{H}^{2}\times \mathbb{R}}}$ .     

Linearity and Second Fundamental Forms for Proper Holomorphic Maps from \mathbb{B}^{n+1} to \mathbb{B}^{4n-3}

For a holomorphic proper map F from the ball $\mathbb{B}^{n+1}$ into $\mathbb{B}^{N+1}$ that is C ³ smooth up to the boundary, the image $M=F(\partial\mathbb{B}^{n})$ is an immersed CR submanifold in the sphere $\partial \mathbb{B}^{N+1}$ on which some second fundamental forms II _M and $\mathit{II}^{CR}_{M}$ can be defined. It is shown that when 4??n+1<N+1??4n?3, F is linear fractional if and only if $\mathit{II}_{M} - \mathit{II}_{M}^{CR} \equiv 0$ .     

Geodesics on the Moduli Space of Oriented Circles in \mathbb{S}^{3}

Let ${\mathbb{Q}^3}$ be the moduli space of oriented circles in the three dimensional unit sphere ${\mathbb{S}^3}$ . Given a natural complex structure such space becomes a three dimensional complex manifold, with a M?bius invariant Hermitian metric h of type (2, 1). Up to M?bius transformations, all geodesics with respect to the Lorentz metric g = Re(h) on ${\mathbb{Q}^3}$ are determined to form a one-parameter family of circles on a helicoid in a space form ${\mathbb{R}^3, \mathbb{H}^3}$ or ${\mathbb{S}^{3}}$ , resp. We show also that any two oriented circles in ${\mathbb{S}^3}$ are connected by countably infinitely many geodesics in ${\mathbb{Q}^3}$ .     

Minimal generating and normally generating sets for the braid and mapping class groups of \mathbb{D }^{2}, \mathbb S ^{2} and \mathbb{R P^2}

We consider the (pure) braid groups $B_{n}(M)$ and $P_{n}(M)$ , where $M$ is the $2$ -sphere $\mathbb S ^{2}$ or the real projective plane $\mathbb R P^2$ . We determine the minimal cardinality of (normal) generating sets $X$ of these groups, first when there is no restriction on $X$ , and secondly when $X$ consists of elements of finite order. This improves on results of Berrick and Matthey in the case of $\mathbb S ^{2}$ , and extends them in the case of $\mathbb R P^2$ . We begin by recalling the situation for the Artin braid groups ( $M=\mathbb{D }^{2}$ ). As applications of our results, we answer the corresponding questions for the associated mapping class groups, and we show that for $M=\mathbb S ^{2}$ or $\mathbb R P^2$ , the induced action of $B_n(M)$ on $H_3(\widetilde{F_n(M)};\mathbb{Z })$ is trivial, $F_{n}(M)$ being the $n^\mathrm{th}$ configuration space of $M$ .     

Classification of rotational special Weingarten surfaces of minimal type in {\mathbb{S}^2 \times \mathbb{R}} and {\mathbb{H}^2 \times \mathbb{R}}

In this paper we classify the complete rotational special Weingarten surfaces in ${\mathbb{S}^2 \times \mathbb{R}}$ and ${\mathbb{H}^2 \times \mathbb{R}}$ ; i.e. rotational surfaces in ${\mathbb{S}^2 \times \mathbb{R}}$ and ${\mathbb{H}^2 \times \mathbb{R}}$ whose mean curvature H and extrinsic curvature K _e satisfy H = f(H ² ? K _e ), for some function ${f \in \mathcal{C}^1([0,+\infty))}$ such that f(0) = 0 and 4x(f′(x))² < 1 for any x ≥ 0. Furthermore we show the existence of non-complete examples of such surfaces.     

Hausdorff measures of subgroups of \mathbb{R }/\mathbb{Z } and \mathbb{R }

For a sequence $\underline{u}=(u_n)_{n\in \mathbb{N }}$ of integers, let $t_{\underline{u}}(\mathbb{T })$ be the group of all topologically $\underline{u}$ -torsion elements of the circle group $\mathbb{T }:=\mathbb{R }/\mathbb{Z }$ . We show that for any $s\in ]0,1[$ and $m\in \{0,+\infty \}$ there exists $\underline{u}$ such that $t_{\underline{u}}(\mathbb{T })$ has Hausdorff dimension $s$ and $s$ -dimensional Hausdorff measure equal to $m$ (no other values for $m$ are possible). More generally, for dimension functions $f,g$ with $f(t)\prec g(t), f(t)\prec \!\!\!\prec t$ and $g(t)\prec \!\!\!\prec t$ we find $\underline{u}$ such that $t_{\underline{u}}(\mathbb{T })$ has at the same time infinite $f$ -measure and null $g$ -measure.     

Postulation of Disjoint Unions of Lines and Double Lines in {\mathbb{P}^3}

A double line ${C \subset \mathbb{P}^3}$ is a connected divisor of type (2, 0) on a smooth quadric surface. Fix ${(a, c) \in \mathbb{N}^2\ \backslash\ \{(0, 0)\}}$ . Let ${X \subset \mathbb{P}^3}$ be a general disjoint union of a lines and c double lines. Then X has maximal rank, i.e. for each ${t \in \mathbb{Z}}$ either ${h^1(\mathcal{I}_X(t)) = 0}$ or ${h^0(\mathcal{I}_X(t)) = 0}$ .     

Categories of bounded \left( {\mathfrak{sp}\left( {{{\mathrm{S}}^2}V \oplus {{\mathrm{S}}^2}{V^{*}}} \right),\;\mathfrak{gl}(V)} \right) - and \left( {\mathfrak{sp}\left( {{\varLambda^2}V \oplus {\varLambda^2}{V^{*}}} \right),\;\mathfrak{gl}(V)} \right) -modules

Let $ \mathfrak{g} $ be a reductive Lie algebra over $ \mathbb{C} $ and $ \mathfrak{k} \subset \mathfrak{g} $ be a reductive in $ \mathfrak{g} $ subalgebra. We call a $ \mathfrak{g} $ -module M a $ \left( {\mathfrak{g}{\hbox{,}}\;\mathfrak{k}} \right) $ -module whenever M is a direct sum of finite-dimensional $ \mathfrak{k} $ -modules. We call a $ \left( {\mathfrak{g}{\hbox{,}}\;\mathfrak{k}} \right) $ -module M bounded if there exists $ {C_M} \in {\mathbb{Z}_{{ \geqslant 0}}} $ such that for any simple finite-dimensional $ \mathfrak{k} $ -module E the dimension of the E-isotypic component is not greater than C _M dim E. Bounded $ \left( {\mathfrak{g}{\hbox{,}}\;\mathfrak{k}} \right) $ -modules form a subcategory of the category of $ \mathfrak{g} $ -modules. Let V be a finite-dimensional vector space. We prove that the categories of bounded $ \left( {\mathfrak{sp}\left( {{{\mathrm{S}}^2}V \oplus {{\mathrm{S}}^2}{V^{*}}} \right),\;\mathfrak{gl}(V)} \right) $ - and $ \left( {\mathfrak{sp}\left( {{\varLambda^2}V \oplus {\varLambda^2}{V^{*}}} \right),\;\mathfrak{gl}(V)} \right) $ -modules are isomorphic to the direct sum of countably many copies of the category of representations of some explicitly described quiver with relations under some mild assumptions on the dimension of V .     

Isometric embeddings of \mathbb{Z}_{p^k} in the Hamming space \mathbb{F}_{p}^{N} and \mathbb{Z}_{p^k}-linear codes

Isometric embeddings of $\mathbb{Z}_{p^n+1}$ into the Hamming space ( $\mathbb{F}_{p}^{p^n},w$ ) have played a fundamental role in recent constructions of non-linear codes. The codes thus obtained are very good codes, but their rate is limited by the rate of the first-order generalized Reed–Muller code—hence, when n is not very small, these embeddings lead to the construction of low-rate codes. A natural question is whether there are embeddings with higher rates than the known ones. In this paper, we provide a partial answer to this question by establishing a lower bound on the order of a symmetry of ( $\mathbb{F}_{p}^{N},w$ ).     

A zoo of diffeomorphism groups on \mathbb{R }^{n}

We consider the groups ${\mathrm{Diff }}_\mathcal{B }(\mathbb{R }^n)$ , ${\mathrm{Diff }}_{H^\infty }(\mathbb{R }^n)$ , and ${\mathrm{Diff }}_{\mathcal{S }}(\mathbb{R }^n)$ of smooth diffeomorphisms on $\mathbb{R }^n$ which differ from the identity by a function which is in either $\mathcal{B }$ (bounded in all derivatives), $H^\infty = \bigcap _{k\ge 0}H^k$ , or $\mathcal{S }$ (rapidly decreasing). We show that all these groups are smooth regular Lie groups.     

Nikodym Maximal Functions Associated with Variable Planes in {\mathbb{R}^{3}}

Given a vector field ${\mathfrak{a}}$ on ${\mathbb{R}^3}$ , we consider a mapping ${x\mapsto \Pi_{\mathfrak{a}}(x)}$ that assigns to each ${x\in\mathbb{R}^3}$ , a plane ${\Pi_{\mathfrak{a}}(x)}$ containing x, whose normal vector is ${\mathfrak{a}(x)}$ . Associated with this mapping, we define a maximal operator ${\mathcal{M}^{\mathfrak{a}}_N}$ on ${L^1_{loc}(\mathbb{R}^3)}$ for each ${N\gg 1}$ by $$\mathcal{M}^{\mathfrak{a}}_Nf(x)=\sup_{x\in\tau} \frac{1}{|\tau|} \int_{\tau}|f(y)|\,dy$$ where the supremum is taken over all 1/N ×? 1/N?× 1 tubes τ whose axis is embedded in the plane ${\Pi_\mathfrak{a}(x)}$ . We study the behavior of ${\mathcal{M}^{\mathfrak{a}}_N}$ according to various vector fields ${\mathfrak{a}}$ . In particular, we classify the operator norms of ${\mathcal{M}^{\mathfrak{a}}_N}$ on ${L^2(\mathbb{R}^3)}$ when ${\mathfrak{a}(x)}$ is the linear function of the form (a ₁₁ x ₁?+?a ₂₁ x ₂, a ₁₂ x ₁?+?a ₂₂ x ₂, 1). The operator norm of ${\mathcal{M}^\mathfrak{a}_N}$ on ${L^2(\mathbb{R}^3)}$ is related with the number given by $$D=(a_{12}+a_{21})^2-4a_{11}a_{22}.$$      

Sufficient conditions for Willmore immersions in \mathbb{R }^3 to be minimal surfaces

We provide two sharp sufficient conditions for immersed Willmore surfaces in $\mathbb{R }^3$ to be already minimal surfaces, i.e. to have vanishing mean curvature on their entire domains. These results turn out to be particularly suitable for applications to Willmore graphs. We can therefore show that Willmore graphs on bounded $C^4$ -domains $\overline{\varOmega }$ with vanishing mean curvature on the boundary $\partial \varOmega $ must already be minimal graphs, which in particular yields some Bernstein-type result for Willmore graphs on $\mathbb{R }^2$ . Our methods also prove the non-existence of Willmore graphs on bounded $C^4$ -domains $\overline{\varOmega }$ with mean curvature $H$ satisfying $H \ge c_0>0 \,{\text{ on }}\, \partial \varOmega $ if $\varOmega $ contains some closed disc of radius $\frac{1}{c_0} \in (0,\infty )$ , and they yield that any closed Willmore surface in $\mathbb{R }^3$ which can be represented as a smooth graph over $\mathbb{S }^2$ has to be a round sphere. Finally, we demonstrate that our results are sharp by means of an examination of some certain part of the Clifford torus in $\mathbb{R }^3$ .     

Complete bounded null curves immersed in {\mathbb {C}^3} and {\rm {SL}(2,\mathbb {C})}

We construct a simply connected complete bounded mean curvature one surface in the hyperbolic 3-space ${\mathcal {H}^3}$ . Such a surface in ${\mathcal {H}^3}$ can be lifted as a complete bounded null curve in ${\rm {SL}(2,\mathbb {C})}$ . Using a transformation between null curves in ${\mathbb {C}^3}$ and null curves in ${\rm {SL}(2,\mathbb {C})}$ , we are able to produce the first examples of complete bounded null curves in ${\mathbb {C}^3}$ . As an application, we can show the existence of a complete bounded minimal surface in ${\mathbb {R}^3}$ whose conjugate minimal surface is also bounded. Moreover, we can show the existence of a complete bounded immersed complex submanifold in ${\mathbb {C}^2}$ .     

On Discrete groups of automorphisms of \mathbb P ^2_\mathbb{C }

We study the geometry and dynamics of discrete subgroups $\Gamma $ of $\mathrm{PSL}(3,\mathbb C )$ with an open invariant set $\Omega \subset \mathbb P _\mathbb{C }^2$ where the action is properly discontinuous and the quotient $\Omega /\Gamma $ contains a connected component whicis compact. We call such groups quasi-cocompact. In this case $\Omega /\Gamma $ is a compact complex projective orbifold and $\Omega $ is a divisible set. Our first theorem refines classical work by Kobayashi–Ochiai and others about complex surfaces with a projective structure: We prove that every such group is either virtually affine or complex hyperbolic. We then classify the divisible sets that appear in this way, the corresponding quasi-cocompact groups and the orbifolds $\Omega /\Gamma $ . We also prove that excluding a few exceptional cases, the Kulkarni region of discontinuity coincides with the equicontinuity region and is the largest open invariant set where the action is properly discontinuous.     

Isometric Immersions into {\mathbb{S}^m \times \mathbb{R}} and {\mathbb{H}^m \times \mathbb{R}} with High Codimensions

In this paper, we obtain sufficient and necessary conditions for a simply connected Riemannian manifold (M ⁿ , g) to be isometrically immersed into ${\mathbb{S}^m \times \mathbb{R}}$ and ${\mathbb{H}^m \times \mathbb{R}}$ .     

Finite groups with \mathbb{P }-subnormal subgroups

A subgroup $H$ of a group $G$ is called $\mathbb{P }$ -subnormal in $G$ whenever either $H=G$ or there is a chain of subgroups $H=H_0\subset H_1\subset \cdots \subset H_n=G$ such that $|H_i:H_{i-1}|$  is a prime for all $i$ . In this paper we study groups with $\mathbb{P }$ -subnormal 2-maximal subgroups, and groups with $\mathbb{P }$ -subnormal primary cyclic subgroups.     

A Few Comments on the Clifford Algebra {C\ell_2} of the Standard Euclidean Plane

This paper is a continuation of the author’s plenary lecture given at ICCA 9 which was held in Weimar at the Bauhaus University, 15–20 July, 2011. We want to study on both the mathematical and the epistemological levels the thought of the brilliant geometer W. K. Clifford by presenting a few comments on the structure of the Clifford algebra ${C\ell_2}$ associated with the standard Euclidean plane ${\mathbb{R}^2}$ . Miquel’s theorem will be given in the algebraic context of the even Clifford algebra ${C\ell^+_2}$ isomorphic to the real algebra ${\mathbb{C}}$ . The proof of this theorem will be based on the cross ratio (the anharmonic ratio) of four complex numbers. It will lead to a group of homographies of the standard projective line ${\mathbb{C}P^1 = P(\mathbb{C}^2)}$ which appeared so attractive to W. K. Clifford in his overview of a general theory of anharmonics. In conclusion it will be shown how the classical Clifford-Hopf fibration S ¹ → S ³ → S ² leads to the space of spinors ${\mathbb{C}^2}$ of the Euclidean space ${\mathbb{R}^3}$ and to the isomorphism ${{\rm {PU}(1) = \rm {SU}(2)/\{I,-I\} \simeq SO(3)}}$ .     

A decomposition of the universal embedding space for the near polygon {{\mathbb H}_n}

Let ${{\mathbb H}_n, n \geq 1}$ , be the near 2n-gon defined on the 1-factors of the complete graph on 2n?+?2 vertices, and let e denote the absolutely universal embedding of ${{\mathbb H}_n}$ into PG(W), where W is a ${\frac{1}{n+2} \left(\begin{array}{c}2n+2 \\ n+1\end{array}\right)}$ -dimensional vector space over the field ${{\mathbb F}_2}$ with two elements. For every point z of ${{\mathbb H}_n}$ and every ${i \in {\mathbb N}}$ , let Δ _i (z) denote the set of points of ${{\mathbb H}_n}$ at distance i from z. We show that for every pair {x, y} of mutually opposite points of ${{\mathbb H}_n, W}$ can be written as a direct sum ${W_0 \oplus W_1 \oplus \cdots \oplus W_n}$ such that the following four properties hold for every ${i \in \{0,\ldots,n \}}$ : (1) ${\langle e(\Delta_i(x) \cap \Delta_{n-i}(y)) \rangle = {\rm PG}(W_i)}$ ; (2) ${\left\langle e \left( \bigcup_{j \leq i} \Delta_j(x) \right) \right\rangle = {\rm PG}(W_0 \oplus W_1 \oplus \cdots \oplus W_i)}$ ; (3) ${\left\langle e \left( \bigcup_{j \leq i} \Delta_j(y) \right) \right\rangle = {\rm PG}(W_{n-i}\oplus W_{n-i+1} \oplus \cdots \oplus W_n)}$ ; (4) ${\dim(W_i) = |\Delta_i(x) \cap \Delta_{n-i}(y)| = \left(\begin{array}{c}n \\ i\end{array}\right)^2 - \left(\begin{array}{c}n \\ i-1\end{array}\right) \cdot \left(\begin{array}{c}n \\ i+1\end{array}\right)}$ .