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Tuesday, 25 April 2017

Surfaces with constant Gauss curvature

Consider surfaces where the Gauss curvature K is a 'simplest' function, namely, K is constant on the surface. For example, in a plane K=0 and in a sphere of radius r, K=1/r2. Other surface with constant Gauss curvature is the cylinder, where K=0 again. If one want to obtain more examples, one may consider this problem in the family of surfaces of revolution. In such a case, the equation K=c is an ordinary differential equation, and by the general theory, for each initial conditions, there is a solution. Thus this provides us a huge family of examples. 

If the profile curve is a graph on the x-line, that is, α(x)=(x,0,f(x)), then 
K(X(x,θ))=ffx(1+f2)2.
We know that when K=0, then f=0, obtaining planes, circular cylinders and cones. On the other hand, the equation ffx(1+f2)2=c
is not possible to integrate completely and only some particular cases can solved: for example, the sphere and the pseudosphere. 

However, if we assume that the surface is compact, then panorama changes drastically, because we have

Theorem (Hilbert): Sphere is the only compact surface with constant Gauss curvature.

We observe that the topological assumption on compactness is essential in the result. It is known that in a compact surface there exists elliptic points, so the value of the constant K must be positive. Then the key is based in the following result:

Lemma (Hilbert): Let S be a surface and pS an elliptic point. Consider κ1κ2 the principal curvatures on S. If p is a global maximum for κ1 and it is a global minimum for κ2, then p is an umbilical point.

The proof of the Hilbert's theorem is then as follows. Since K=κ1κ2>0, the sign of the principal curvature is the same. After a change of orientation, we suppose κi>0. Let pS a point where the (continuous) function κ2 attains a global minimum. Since κ1=cκ2, then p is a global maximum for κ1. By the lemma, κ1(p)=κ2(p). Then we have for any xS, κ2(p)κ2(x)κ1(x)κ1(p)
and thus, κ1=κ2 on S. Then S is an open of a plane or a sphere. Since S is closed, by connectedness, S is a plane or it is a sphere. But sphere is the only one that is compact.

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