Inflection points and affine vertices of closed curves on 2-dimensional affine flat tori (Q1895225): Difference between revisions

Inflection points and sextatic points (i.e., extrema of the affine curvature, called ``affine vertices'' by the author) can be defined for curves in general 2-manifolds with torsion-free affine connection. The author considers here closed curves on a torus with torsion-free flat affine connection (a.k.a. affine flat torus). Such a torus is called Euclidean if it is affinely equivalent to the standard torus \(\mathbb{R}^2/ \mathbb{Z}^2\). The author shows that in a Euclidean torus, any simple closed curve which is not homotopic to zero has at least two points of inflection. If the curve is not simple or not homotopic to zero, it can be seen by simple examples that it may have no inflections at all. Likewise, if the curve lies on an affine flat torus which is not Euclidean, it need not have inflections; the author shows this by constructing examples for each equivalence class in the classification of affine flat tori as given by \textit{P. M. D. Furness} and \textit{D. K. Arrowsmith} [J. Lond. Math. Soc., II. Ser. 10, 487-499 (1975; Zbl 0318.53049)]. Regarding sextatic points resp. affine vertices, the author notes that each locally strictly convex curve on the Euclidean torus possesses at least two of them, and if the curve is furthermore simple (and thus homotopic to zero due to convexity), even at least six. He then gives an example of such a curve which attains the minimum number of six sextatic points.