Kinematical aspects of Levi-Civita transport of vectors and tensors along a surface curve (Q2343274)

This article appeared in a special issue on the mechanics of the Möbius band. Its main topic are, however, kinematic aspects of parallel transport along surface curves in three dimensions. Links to the Möbius band are provided through examples and relations between anholonomy along closed surface curves and surface topology. The author introduces the Levi-Civita frame along a surface curve. It consists of the surface unit normal \(\mathbf{n}\), a unit normal \(\mathbf{u}\) in the direction of the derivative of \(\mathbf{n}\) with respect to the curve parameter, and the vector \(\mathbf{g} = \mathbf{n} \times \mathbf{u}\). The angular velocity of the Levi-Civita frame is orthogonal to the surface normal, vectors and tensors attached to this frame are parallel transported, and the vector \(\mathbf{g}\) gives the direction of rulings for the circumscribed developable surface. Covariant derivatives of vectors and tensors admit an interpretation as corotational rates in the Levi-Civita frame. The text is an overview article with detailed computations and interspersed with intuitive examples. We do not find a single definition or theorem but a detailed account on the history of the subject, a compact but quite complete introduction to the differential geometry of surfaces in three dimensions, and an appendix on ruled surfaces.