A note on binary quintic forms and lines of principal curvature on surfaces in \(\mathbb{R}^5\) (Q664678)

The paper deals with lines of principal curvature on a smooth surface \(M\) in the Euclidean 5-space \({\mathbb R}^5\). The definition of principal curvature lines of such a surface \(M\) is based on the metric structure of \(M\) as well as on quintic binary forms and their covariants of degree 2. The authors use the fact that there exist exactly three such covariants: \(C_{2,2}\), \(C_{6,2}\), \(C_{8,2}\). Each of them yields a binary quadratic equation whose solution curves establish a family of principal curvature lines (\(C_{i,2}\)-lines, \(i=2,6,8\)) of \(M\). Some properties of those curve families are derived. For instance, the authors prove that the \(C_{i,2}\)-lines neither depend on the choice of the local parametrization nor on the chosen coordinate frame.