Skew loops and quadric surfaces (Q1864138)

A skew loop is a closed space curve without parallel tangent lines. The authors prove: The only complete \(C^2\) surfaces in \(\mathbb{R}^3\) with a point of positive Gauss curvature which contain no \(C^2\) skew loops are the quadrics (Theorem 1.1), in particular: ellipsoids are the only closed \(C^2\) surfaces immersed in \(\mathbb{R}^3\) which admit no \(C^2\) skew loops; on the other hand: Any cylinder with a strictly convex asymmetric \(C^2\) base contains a skew loop with nonvanishing curvature (Prop. 4.1). Theorem 1.1 is proved by a sequence of intermediate results: every \(C^2\) loop on the sphere \(S^2\) is regularly homotopic in \(S^2\) to its own tantrix; positively curved surfaces admit no skew figure-eights; convex quadrics have no skew loops; surfaces without skew loops have symmetric local cross sections. By a result of W. Blaschke, the last property characterizes the quadrics, and thus gives Theorem 1.1.