20 Differential geometry of surfaces

In mathematics, the differential geometry of surfaces deals with the differential geometry of smooth surfaces with various additional structures, most often, a Riemannian metric. Surfaces have been extensively studied from various perspectives: extrinsically, relating to their embedding in Euclidean space and intrinsically, reflecting their properties determined solely by the distance within the surface as measured along curves on the surface. One of the fundamental concepts investigated is the Gaussian curvature, first studied in depth by Carl Friedrich Gauss, who showed that curvature was an intrinsic property of a surface, independent of its isometric embedding in Euclidean space.

In differential geometry, constant-mean-curvature (CMC) surfaces are surfaces with constant mean curvature. This includes minimal surfaces as a subset, but typically they are treated as special case.

In mathematics, a developable surface is a smooth surface with zero Gaussian curvature. That is, it is a surface that can be flattened onto a plane without distortion. Conversely, it is a surface which can be made by transforming a plane. In three dimensions all developable surfaces are ruled surfaces. There are developable surfaces in R4 which are not ruled.

In differential geometry, the Gaussian curvature or Gauss curvature Κ of a surface at a point is the product of the principal curvatures, κ1 and κ2, at the given point:

In hyperbolic geometry, the Klein quartic, named after Felix Klein, is a compact Riemann surface of genus 3 with the highest possible order automorphism group for this genus, namely order 168 orientation-preserving automorphisms, and 336 automorphisms if orientation may be reversed. As such, the Klein quartic is the Hurwitz surface of lowest possible genus; see Hurwitz's automorphisms theorem. Its (orientation-preserving) automorphism group is isomorphic to PSL(2, 7), the second-smallest non-abelian simple group. The quartic was first described in.

In differential geometry, the lidinoid is a triply periodic minimal surface. The name comes from its Swedish discoverer Sven Lidin.

In topography, the line of greatest slope is a curve following the steepest slope. In mountain biking and skiing, the line of greatest slope is sometimes called the fall line.

In differential geometry, Loewner's torus inequality is an inequality due to Charles Loewner. It relates the systole and the area of an arbitrary Riemannian metric on the 2-torus.

In mathematics, a minimal surface is a surface that locally minimizes its area. This is equivalent to having zero mean curvature.

In mathematics, the Peano surface is the graph of the two-variable function

In differential geometry, the two principal curvatures at a given point of a surface are the eigenvalues of the shape operator at the point. They measure how the surface bends by different amounts in different directions at that point.

In differential geometry, Pu's inequality, proved by Pao Ming Pu, relates the area of an arbitrary Riemannian surface homeomorphic to the real projective plane with the lengths of the closed curves contained in it.

In differential geometry, a smooth surface in three dimensions has a ridge point when a line of curvature has a local maximum or minimum of principal curvature. The set of ridge points form curves on the surface called ridges.

In geometry, a surface S is ruled if through every point of S there is a straight line that lies on S. Examples include the plane, the lateral surface of a cylinder or cone, a conical surface with elliptical directrix, the right conoid, the helicoid, and the tangent developable of a smooth curve in space.

In mathematics, a saddle point or minimax point is a point on the surface of the graph of a function where the slopes (derivatives) in orthogonal directions are all zero, but which is not a local extremum of the function. An example of a saddle point is when there is a critical point with a relative minimum along one axial direction and at a relative maximum along the crossing axis. However, a saddle point need not be in this form. For example, the function has a critical point at that is a saddle point since it is neither a relative maximum nor relative minimum, but it does not have a relative maximum or relative minimum in the -direction.

In the part of mathematics referred to as topology, a surface is a two-dimensional manifold. Some surfaces arise as the boundaries of three-dimensional solids; for example, the sphere is the boundary of the solid ball. Other surfaces arise as graphs of functions of two variables; see the figure at right. However, surfaces can also be defined abstractly, without reference to any ambient space. For example, the Klein bottle is a surface that cannot be embedded in three-dimensional Euclidean space.

In the mathematical study of the differential geometry of surfaces, a tangent developable is a particular kind of developable surface obtained from a curve in Euclidean space as the surface swept out by the tangent lines to the curve. Such a surface is also the envelope of the tangent planes to the curve.

Gauss's Theorema Egregium is a major result of differential geometry that concerns the curvature of surfaces. The theorem is that Gaussian curvature can be determined entirely by measuring angles, distances and their rates on a surface, without reference to the particular manner in which the surface is embedded in the ambient 3-dimensional Euclidean space. In other words, the Gaussian curvature of a surface does not change if one bends the surface without stretching it. Thus the Gaussian curvature is an intrinsic invariant of a surface.

Translation surface (differential geometry)

In differential geometry a translation surface is a surface that is generated by translations:For two space curves with a common point , the curve is shifted such that point is moving on . By this procedure curve generates a surface: the translation surface.

In the differential geometry of surfaces in three dimensions, umbilics or umbilical points are points on a surface that are locally spherical. At such points the normal curvatures in all directions are equal, hence, both principal curvatures are equal, and every tangent vector is a principal direction. The name "umbilic" comes from the Latin umbilicus - navel.