The envelope of lines meeting a fixed line and tangent to two spheres (Q2484011)

The authors determine the configurations of one line \(L\) and three spheres \(S_1, S_2\) and \(S_3\) in Euclidean space \(\mathbb{R}^3\) for which there are infinitely many common tangent lines to the spheres that also meet the fixed line \(L\). According to Theorem 1, this happens precisely in the following four cases: (i) the spheres \(S_1,S_2\) and \(S_3\) are tangent to each other at the same point and either (a) \(L\) meets that point, or (b) \(L\) lies in the common tangent plane, or both; (ii) the spheres are tangent (along circles) to a cone (of revolution) whose apex lies on \(L\); (iii) the spheres meet in a common circle and the line \(L\) lies in the plane of that circle; (iv) the centres of the spheres are collinear and \(L\) is tangent to all three spheres. In order to prove this theorem, the authors study the algebraic subset \(\tau\) of the Grassmannian consisting of the common tangents to two spheres and a line, proving step by step the following: \(\tau\) is a curve of degree at most 8; it is impossible for any component \(\sigma\) of \(\tau\) to have degree 3, 5 or 7, and if a component \(\sigma\) has degree 4, 6 or 8, then it determines the two spheres; only in the cases of \(\sigma\) having degree 1 or 2 there can be more than two spheres: these are described in Theorem 1. The case when \(\sigma\) has degree 4 is treated in Theorem 18: then either \(S_1\) and \(S_2\) are tangent to each other and to \(L\) at the same point, or \(S_1\) and \(S_2\) are symmetric with respect to \(L\), or both -- in particular, there cannot be a third sphere tangent to all lines in \(\sigma\).