Projective geometry with Clifford algebra (Q1175628): Difference between revisions

Defining a hyperplane one has an equation in which an inner product occurs. What does the metric term inner product mean here. Despite of an efficient method which Grassmann gave last century and despite of results of Whitehead and Forder on this subject the projective geometry is because of its synthetic and coordinate-based methods not fully integrated in modern mathematics as the authors say. In the paper under review projective geometry is expressed in the language of geometric calculus of which Clifford algebra is the mathematical backbone. The authors want to let the impression vanish that geometric algebras as Clifford told his algebras are only tools for metric geometry. They show that with the help of the multiplication in Clifford algebras many other algebraic products (all over the reals) can be obtained. While for metric geometry the inner product is a metrical function, in general it means a contraction or a step-lowering operation. Multiplication with a unit pseudoscalar (or n-blade) means duality. This simplifies the problem of relating duality operation for intersecting spaces of different dimension. The starting point for incidence geometric interpretations is given by the equation \(x\land A=0\) where \(\land\) denotes the outer product. By the duality it can also be described by an equation with the inner product. If \(A\) is an \(r\)-blade the solution set of this equation is an \(r\)- dimensional subspace of the vector space. If there is \(C\) such that \(A=BC=B\land C\) then the supporting space of \(B\) is a part of that of \(A\). It is clear that this at once can be applied in projective geometry. The relations among points, lines, planes etc., for example about poles and polars, can now be expressed by the various products of geometric algebra. To demonstrate how the geometric calculus works, proofs of the theorems of Desargues, Pappus, Bricard, Pascal for a conic as given by two projectively related pencils of lines, and the dual theorems in the plane are given. Moreover Möbius tetrahedra, reguli, twisted cubics, and quadrics in the 3-dimension projective space are considered, and new light is thrown onto the studies of Whitehead on line geometry. In an appendix a 'dictionary' of the language of Whitehead and that of the authors is given.