Joachimsthal surfaces inS 3

A representation of the Joachimsthal surfaces (having a family of curvature lines that lie in totally geodesic 2-spheres) in the sphereS ³ is obtained. It is proved that, if a surface of constant mean curvature inS ³ has one family of curvature lines lying in totally geodesic 2-spheres, then it is a surface of rotation. Translated fromMatematicheskie Zametki, Vol. 67, No. 2, pp. 221–229, February, 2000.     

Surfaces in Sol3 Space Foliated by Circles

In this paper we study surfaces foliated by a uniparametric family of circles in the homogeneous space Sol₃. We prove that there do not exist such surfaces with zero mean curvature or with zero Gaussian curvature. We extend this study considering surfaces foliated by geodesics, equidistant lines or horocycles in totally geodesic planes and we classify all such surfaces under the assumption of minimality or flatness.     

Flatness of Gaussian curvature and area of ideal triangles

Let M be aC ^k ,k 4, compact surface of genus greater than two whose curvature is negative in all points but along a simple closed geodesic (t) where the curvature is zero at every point. We show that the area of ideal triangles having a lifting of as an edge is infinite. This provides a family of surfaces having ideal triangles of infinite area whose geodesic flows are equivalent to Anosov flows, in contrast with the well-known examples of surfaces with flat strips which also have ideal triangles of infinite area. By the CAT-comparison theory we can deduce, using these surfaces as models, that aC compact surface of non-positive curvature having one geodesic along which the curvature is zero has ideal triangles of infinite area.Partially supported by CNPq of Brazilian Government     

Entropy-expansiveness of geodesic flows on closed manifolds without conjugate points

In this article, we consider the entropy-expansiveness of geodesic flows on closed Riemannian manifolds without conjugate points. We prove that, if the manifold has no focal points, or if the manifold is bounded asymptote, then the geodesic flow is entropy-expansive. Moreover, for the compact oriented surfaces without conjugate points, we prove that the geodesic flows are entropy-expansive. We also give an estimation of distance between two positively asymptotic geodesics of an uniform visibility manifold.     

The Minding formula and its applications

We apply the Minding Formula for geodesic curvature and the Gauss-Bonnet Formula to calculate the total Gaussian curvature of certain 2-dimensional open complete branched Riemannian manifolds, the M\cal M surfaces. We prove that for an M\cal M surface, the total curvature depends only on its Euler characteristic and the local behaviour of its metric at ends and branch points. Then we check that many important surfaces, such as complete minimal surfaces in \Bbb Rⁿ{\Bbb R}^n with finite total curvature, complete constant mean curvature surfaces in hyperbolic 3-space H³ (–1) with finite total curvature, are actually branch point free M\cal M surfaces. Therefore as corollaries we give simple proofs of some classical theorems such as the Chern-Osserman theorem for complete minimal surfaces in \Bbb Rⁿ{\Bbb R}^n with finite total curvature. For the reader's convenience, we also derive the Minding Formula.     

Aperiodic invariant continua for surface homeomorphisms

We prove that if a homeomorphism of a closed orientable surface S has no wandering points and leaves invariant a compact, connected set K which contains no periodic points, then either K=S=\mathbbT²{K=S=\mathbb{T}^2} , or K is the intersection of a decreasing sequence of annuli. A version for non-orientable surfaces is given.     

Minimal helix surfaces in <Emphasis Type="Italic">N</Emphasis><Superscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis></Superscript>×ℝ

An immersed surface M in N ⁿ ×ℝ is a helix if its tangent planes make constant angle with ∂ _t . We prove that a minimal helix surface M, of arbitrary codimension is flat. If the codimension is one, it is totally geodesic. If the sectional curvature of N is positive, a minimal helix surfaces in N ⁿ ×ℝ is not necessarily totally geodesic. When the sectional curvature of N is nonpositive, then M is totally geodesic. In particular, minimal helix surfaces in Euclidean n-space are planes. We also investigate the case when M has parallel mean curvature vector: A complete helix surface with parallel mean curvature vector in Euclidean n-space is a plane or a cylinder of revolution. Finally, we use Eikonal f functions to construct locally any helix surface. In particular every minimal one can be constructed taking f with zero Hessian.     

Eine Charakterisierung der Sphäre im E3

It is well known, that in E³ the spheres are the closed convex C² -surfaces having the property, that each of their closed C²-curves with the total geodesic curvature O bisects the area of the surface. This characterization will be transmitted into the theory of convex surfaces founded by A.D.Alexandrov, where convex surfaces without any differentiability property are studied.     

The characterization of totally geodesic submanifolds ofS m andCP m

We prove a theorem on ruled surfaces that generalizes a theorem of Ferus on totally geodesic foliations. On the basis of this theorem we obtain criteria for totally geodesic submanifolds ofS ^m andCP ^m that generalize and complement certain results of Borisenko, Ferus, and Abe. We give an application to the geodesic differential forms defined by Dombrowski in the case of submanifolds ofS ^m andCP ^m.Translated from Ukrainskií Geometricheskií Sbornik, Issue 28, 1985, pp. 106–116.The author is grateful to V. A. Toponogov for posing this problem and for attention to the work and to A. A. Borisenko for helpful criticisms.     

Geodesics in minimal surfaces

Abstract—In this paper, we consider connected minimal surfaces in R³ with isothermal coordinates and with a family of geodesic coordinates curves, these surfaces will be called GICM-surfaces. We give a classification of the GICM-surfaces. This class of minimal surfaces includes the catenoid, the helicoid and Enneper’s surface. Also, we show that one family of this class of minimal surfaces has at least one closed geodesic and one 1-periodic family of this class has finite total curvature. As application we show other characterization of catenoid and helicoid. Finally, we show that the class of GICM-surfaces coincides with the class of minimal surfaces whose the geodesic curvature k _g ¹ and k _g ² of the coordinates curves satisfy αk _g ¹ + βk _g ² = 0, α, β ∈ R.     

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.     

Compact Surfaces with Constant Gaussian Curvature in Product Spaces

We prove that the only compact surfaces of positive constant Gaussian curvature in \mathbbH²×\mathbbR{\mathbb{H}^{2}\times\mathbb{R}} (resp. positive constant Gaussian curvature greater than 1 in \mathbbS²×\mathbbR{\mathbb{S}^{2}\times\mathbb{R}}) whose boundary Γ is contained in a slice of the ambient space and such that the surface intersects this slice at a constant angle along Γ, are the pieces of a rotational complete surface. We also obtain some area estimates for surfaces of positive constant Gaussian curvature in \mathbbH²×\mathbbR{\mathbb{H}^{2}\times\mathbb{R}} and positive constant Gaussian curvature greater than 1 in \mathbbS²×\mathbbR{\mathbb{S}^{2}\times\mathbb{R}} whose boundary is contained in a slice of the ambient space. These estimates are optimal in the sense that if the bounds are attained, the surface is again a piece of a rotational complete surface.     

Non-hyperbolic surfaces having all ideal triangles with finite area

We construct examples ofC ³ compact surfaces of non-positive curvature having non-Anosov geodesic flows and satisfying the following property: there existsL>0 such that the area of every ideal triangle in the universal covering of the surface is bounded above byL.Partially supported by CNPq of Brazilian Government     

Contact of ropes and orthotropic rough surfaces

Contact between arbitrary curved ropes and arbitrary curved rough orthotropic surfaces has been revised from the geometrical point of view. Variational equations for the equilibrium of ropes on orthotropic rough surfaces are derived, first, using the consistent variational inclusion of frictional contact constraints via Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions expressed in Darboux basis. Then, the systems of differential equations are derived for both statics and dynamics of ropes on a rough surface depending on the sticking-sliding condition for orthotropic Coulomb's friction. Three criteria are found to be fulfilled during the static equilibrium of a rope on a rough surface: “no separation”, condition for dragging coefficient of friction and inequality for tangential forces at the end of the rope. The limit tangential loads still preserve the famous “Euler view” T = T₀e^ωs for the curves and surfaces of constant curvature. It is shown that the curve of the maximum tension of a rough orthotropic surface is geodesic. Equations of motion are derived in the case if the sliding criteria is fulfilled and there is “no separation”. Various cases possessing analytical solutions of the derived system, including Euler case and a spiral rope on a cylinder are shown as examples of application of the derived theory. (© 2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Certain 4-manifolds with non-negative sectional curvature

In this paper, we study certain compact 4-manifolds with non-negative sectional curvature K. If s is the scalar curvature and W. is the self-dual part of Weyl tensor, then it will be shown that there is no metric g on S ^• × S ^• with both (i) K > 0 and (ii) ÷ s − W _• ⩾ 0. We also investigate other aspects of 4-manifolds with non-negative sectional curvature. One of our results implies a theorem of Hamilton: “If a simply-connected, closed 4-manifold M^• admits a metric g of non-negative curvature operator, then M^• is one of S^•, ℂP^• and S^•×S^•”. Our method is different from Hamilton’s and is much simpler. A new version of the second variational formula for minimal surfaces in 4-manifolds is proved.      

Estimation of the Length of a Simple Geodesic on a Convex Surface

It was proved by I. M. Liberman that for a C ²-smooth closed surface M of positive Gaussian curvature there exists a number l such that any geodesic arc on M of length at least l is not simple. In this article we indicate a lower bound for l. We exhibit an example showing that our estimate is unimprovable.     

Skew loops and quadric surfaces

A skew loop is a closed curve without parallel tangent lines. We prove: The only complete surfaces in R ³ with a point of positive curvature and no skew loops are the quadrics. In particular: Ellipsoids are the only closed surfaces without skew loops. Our efforts also yield results about skew loops on cylinders and positively curved surfaces. Received: January 7, 2002 RID="*" ID="*"The first author was partially supported by the NSF grant DMS-0204190.     

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.     

Minimizing geodesic nets and critical points of distance

We establish a relationship between geodesic nets and critical points of the distance function. We bound the number of balanced points for certain minimizing geodesic nets on manifolds homeomorphic to the n-sphere. This result is used to give conditions under which a minimizing geodesic flower degenerates into a simple closed geodesic.     

Obstructions to positive curvature and symmetry

We discuss new obstructions to positive sectional curvature and symmetry. The main result asserts that the index of the Dirac operator twisted with the tangent bundle vanishes on a 2-connected manifold of dimension ≠8 if the manifold admits a metric of positive sectional curvature and isometric effective S¹-action. The proof relies on the rigidity theorem for elliptic genera and properties of totally geodesic submanifolds.