Flat rotational surfaces with pointwise 1-type Gauss map via generalized quaternions (Q828413)

In this article, the authors consider a class of surfaces in \(\mathbb{R}^4\) endowed with the flat metric: \(g = dx_0^2 + \alpha dx_1^2 + \beta dx_2^2 + \alpha \beta dx_3^2,\) where \(\alpha, \beta\) are (nonzero) real numbers. The most important special cases are the Euclidean and split-signature cases, corresponding to \((\alpha,\beta)\) being \((1,1)\) and \((1,-1)\) respectively. Using a previously known \((\alpha, \beta)\) deformation of the quaternions, called generalized quaternions (see for instance the book by \textit{H. Pottmann} and \textit{J. Wallner} [Computational line geometry. Berlin: Springer (2001; Zbl 1006.51015)]), the authors define a class \(\mathcal{C}\) of parametrized flat rotational surfaces in \((\mathbb{R}^4,g)\), depending on a parametrized curve in \(\mathbb{R}^2\) (see Equation (9) in the article). The notion of a pointwise 1-type Gauss map is a condition on the Laplacian of the Gauss map (see Equation (1) in the article). The expression ``pointwise 1-type Gauss map'' originates in the article by \textit{Y. H. Kim} and \textit{D. W. Yoon} [J. Geom. Phys. 34, No. 3--4, 191--205 (2000; Zbl 0962.53034)]. The authors study and classify the subclass \(\mathcal{C}' \subset \mathcal{C}\) consisting of pointwise 1-type Gauss map surfaces, and obtain a classification result, Theorem 1 in the article.