Ribaucour coordinates (Q1728765)

First, the authors present several results for the Ribaucour transformation of curves and then discuss whether and how these generalize to higher dimensions: a reduction of the ambient dimension by means of Ribaucour transformation, which leads to Ribaucour coordinates; smoothing of a sequence of Ribaucour transforms; and the possibility of an interpolation between curves or submanifolds by means of a sequence of Ribaucour transformations. Each of these problems is addressed in both the smooth and discrete settings. The principal purpose of the paper under review is to provide a more direct geometric approach to generalized Ribaucour coordinates. A geometric method to reduce the ambient dimension of a curve or submanifold by means of a Ribaucour transformation into a hypersphere is obtained. Once the dimension reduction is established, the higher co-dimension version of Ribaucour coordinates relies on a Bianchi permutability result. Finally, the authors prove that any two (smooth or discrete) curves can be transformed into each other by a sequence of Ribaucour transforms.