Surfaces in classical geometries. A treatment by moving frames (Q896105)

This book is inspired by Chern's notes given at the University of Houston [Lectures notes on Differential Geometry, Tech. Rep. UH/MD-72, University of Houston, Houston, 1990] and its goal is to broaden core knowledge on differential geometry and explore many topics in classical differential geometry that are of current research interest. The method of investigation is the method of moving frames which is a natural means for discovering and proving important results and it gives also a unifying approach to each topic. In this book a moving frame along a submanifold of a homogeneous space is a map from an open subset of the submanifold into the group of transformations of the ambient space. Generally, a moving frame does not exist globally, however, the method of moving frames leads often to global results. The method is applied to classical geometries that is, the Euclidean geometry \(\mathbb R^3\), the spherical geometry \(S^3\), the hyperbolic geometry \(H^3\), the Möbius geometry which is the sphere \(S^3\) acted on by its Lie group of all conformal diffeomorphisms, and finally the unit tangent bundle \(US^3\) of \(S^3\) acted on by the Lie group of all contact transformations. The book is restricted to curves and surfaces in order to emphasize the geometric interpretation of invariants and other constructions. Chapters 2 and 3 could be characterized as introductory in the sense that they contain all material needed to understand the following chapters. Namely, Chapter 2 presents a brief introduction to matrix Lie groups, their Lie algebras and their actions on manifolds. Chapter 3 presents an outline of the method of moving frame for any submanifold of an arbitrary homogeneous space. It is explained how a Lie group \(G\) acting transitively on a manifold \(N\) is related to the principal bundle of linear frames of \(N\). A general outline of the frame reduction problem is also presented. The chapter concludes with basic theorems that characterize when a submanifold of a homogeneous space is itself homogeneous. In Chapters 4, 5 and 6 the method of moving frames is applied in order to investigate immersions of surfaces in \(\mathbb R^3\), \(S^3\) and \(H^3\) respectively. In particular in Chapter 5, important examples of Willmore immersions are constructed. These examples are derived from the existence of compact minimal immersions, such as the Clifford torus. Chapter 5 concludes with Hopf cylinders and Pincall's Willmore tori in \(S^3\). Chapter 7 reviews complex structures on a manifold. An elementary exposition of the complex structure induced on a surface by a Riemannian metric, is given. In this way a complex structure is induced on any surface immersed into one of the space forms \(\mathbb R^3\), \(S^3\) and \(H^3\). In Chapter 8, a brief history and exposition of minimal surfaces in \(\mathbb R^3\) is given. In Chapter 9, isothermic immersions in \(\mathbb R^3\) are introduced and this notion can easily be extended to immersions of surfaces into each of the space forms. In Chapter 10, the Bonnet Problem, which asks whether an immersion of a surface \(x:M\to\mathbb R^3\) admits a Bonnet mate is presented. In Chapter 11, immersions of surfaces in \(H^3\) with constant mean curvature equal to one are presented. The chapter ends with interesting examples of Bryant, Bohle-Peters, Bobenko-Pavlyukevich-Springborn. Chapter 12 introduces conformal geometry and Liouville's characterization of conformal transformation of \(\mathbb R^3\). Chapters 13 and 14 take up the Möbius invariant conformal structure on Möbius space and introduces isothermic immersions of surfaces in this space. In Chapter 15, the method of moving frames in Lie sphere geometry is presented. Finally, 300 problems and exercices, from simple until open problems, are contained in this book and they are the essential part of it. In conclusion, it is an interesting book written carefully and with originality. Undoubtedly its reading will be very helpful to any geometer.