The twelve surfaces of Darboux and the triality (Q2116737)

This article gives a geometric interpretation of the ``twelve surfaces of Darboux'', which appear by repeatedly applying a simple transformation to an infinitesimal isometric deformation of a surface in three-dimensional Euclidean space. This interpretation of Darboux's theorem is a differentiable version of the triality of totally isotropic immersions of surfaces in the real projective quadric of dimension 6 defined by a quadratic form of neutral signature \((4,4)\).