Variation of Gaussian curvature under conformal mapping and its application (Q2367582)

The authors determine the variation of the Gauss curvature by a conformal map \((E^*,F^*,G^*)=t^ 2(E,F,G)\) of a surface in 3-space. [This problem is a special case of the problem treated by \textit{J. A. Schouten}, Über die konforme Abbildung \(n\)-dimensionaler Mannigfaltigkeiten mit quadratischer Maßbestimmung auf eine Mannigfaltigkeit mit euklidischer Maßbestimmung, Math. Z. 11, 58-88 (1921); \textit{J. A. Schouten} and \textit{D. J. Struik}, Un théorème sur la transformation conforme dans la géométrie différentielle à \(n\) dimensions, C. R. Paris 176, 1597-1600 (1923); cf. also \textit{J. A. Schouten}, Der Ricci- Kalkül (Springer, Berlin 1924) p. 202; Ricci Calculus, 2nd. ed. (Springer, Berlin 1954; Zbl 0057.378) p. 310 ff., 418 ff.]. The equation connecting \(K^*\) and \(K\) is a second order nonlinear PDE for the function \(t(u,v)\); the authors give Bernstein polynomial and quadratic polynomial approximations of solutions, based on undetermined coefficients, that hopefully can be used on small surface patches for purposes of computer recognition of deformed surfaces.