Continuation methods for principal foliations of embedded surfaces (Q2154765)

This work presents a numerical approach for the study of principal foliations of embedded surfaces in a three-dimensional Euclidean space, considering them as analogous to phase portraits of two-dimensional vector fields. The author employs continuation methods to compute closed lines of curvature and umbilic points (singularities of principal foliations where the principal curvatures of a surface coincide) in one-parameter families of embedded surfaces in \(\mathbb{R^3}\), thus allowing a closer look into their bifurcations. For this purpose, the author introduces a system of defining equations of umbilic points, based on a modified version of Rodrigues's formula for principal directions leading to conditions on a \(2\times 2\) symmetric matrix. The regularity of the resulting defining system for umbilic points is illustrated via numerical examples. Moreover, the paper presents a numerical strategy for the computation of the line of curvature through a specified initial point. The proposed method relies on a modified version of the classical fourth-order Runge-Kutta method for solving ODEs. The present work includes various numerical examples inspired by case studies of \textit{G. Monge} [Journal de l'Ecole Polytechnique, II cah. (1796)] and \textit{F. Cazals} et al. [Comput. Aided Geom. Des. 23, No. 7, 582--598 (2006; Zbl 1112.65013)].