Ruled Weingarten surfaces in Minkowski 3-space (Q1291032)

The authors characterize all non-developable ruled surfaces in Minkowski 3-space (pseudo-Euclidean 3-space, having the indefinite metric \(ds^2= -dx^2+ dy^2+ dz^2)\) with a relation \(F(H,K)= 0\) between the mean curvature \(H\) and the Gauss curvature \(K\) (Weingarten surfaces). As an analogue of a classical theorem by Beltrami and Dini (Theorem 1: any non-developable ruled Weingarten surface in Euclidean 3-space is a piece of a helicoidal ruled surface), the following facts (i)--(iii) are proved in the ``main result'' (Theorem 2) concerning surfaces in Minkowski 3-space: (i) Any non-developable ruled Weingarten surface having only non-isotropic rectilinear generators is a piece of a helicoidal ruled surface, the explicit relation between \(H\) and \(K\) being \(H= aK^{1/4}+ bK^{3/4}\) for some constants \(a\), \(b\). (ii) In particular, any non-developable and minimal ruled surface is either a piece of Cayley's ruled surface of third degree (\(z= xy- x^3/3\), up to Euclidean similarities), or a piece of a so-called Lorentzian helicoid of the first, second, or third kind (see Section 3). (iii) Any ruled surface with a null ruling is a Weingarten surface satisfying the equation \(H^2= K\). Final remark: The 2-parameter family \(z= A(x^2- y^2)+ B\log|x- y|\) belongs to the helicoidal ruled surfaces of Theorem 2, (i). These surfaces of Nomizu/Sasaki and Cayley's ruled surface as well are improper affine spheres with flat affine metric, and they all are equiaffine homogeneous.