Bonnet pairs and isothermic surfaces (Q1974805)

Two surfaces in Euclidean \(3\)-space (identified with the imaginary quaternions) \(\mathbb{R}^3\cong\text{Im}H\) are said to form a Bonnet pair if they induce the same metric and have the same mean curvature. The authors construct such Bonnet pairs \((f_+,f_-)\) from isothermic surfaces \(f\) and their Christoffel transforms \(f^\ast\) by means of spin transforms, \(df_{\pm}=(\pm\varepsilon+f^\ast) df (\pm\varepsilon-f^\ast)\). Here the multiplication is quaternionic multiplication, and the special form of the spin transforms ensure that the differentials \(df_\pm\) are integrable. Moreover, it is shown that any Bonnet pair defined on a simply connected domain can be obtained in this way. Note that a relation between isothermic surfaces in space forms and Bonnet pairs was known to \textit{M.~Servant} [Comptes Rendus 134, 1291-1293 (1902; JFM 33.0651.01)] who established a relation on the level of fundamental forms, and that \textit{L.~Bianchi} [Rom. Acc. L. Rend. 12, 511-520 (1903; JFM 34.0654.01)] derived formulas for the differentials of the surfaces of a Bonnet pair from the frame of an isothermic surface in the \(3\)-sphere.