Variational Laplacians for semidiscrete surfaces (Q2374386)

The authors propose a variational definition of the Laplacian on semidiscrete surfaces. Recall that the classical Laplace-Beltrami operator on Riemannian manifolds can be defined via the Dirichlet energy functional with an obvious connection to the mean curvature normal vector. The paper transfers this point of view in a semidiscrete setting. Semidiscrete surfaces are mappings of the form \((k, t) \to x(k, t)\) from an open set \(U\subset \mathbb{Z} \times \mathbb{R}\). In this paper, they are assumed to be twice differentiable in the second argument. The sequence of curves \(\left(x(k, t)\right)_k\) is extended into a piecewise ruled surface by connecting the points above by segments. A natural definition of area is then proposed and, with it, a notion of Dirichlet energy. Particular attention is needed to define the admissible variations of a smooth semidiscrete mapping \(x(k, t)\), but, once this is carefully set up, the definition of the Laplacian on regular semidiscrete surfaces is, consequently, proposed. The semidiscrete version of mean curvature follows, as well as its connection with the newly defined Laplacian. Finally, the authors show that the semidiscrete Laplacian operator converges pointwise to its smooth counterpart as a semidiscrete surface converges to a smooth surface.