Möbius sphere geometry in inner product spaces (Q2386088)

The paper develops Möbius sphere geometry for an arbitrary real inner product space \(X\) (i.e. a real vector space \(X\) of dimension at least \(2\) and not necessarily finite, with a fixed scalar product, positive definite). The theory is presented dimension free, that is without referring to a basis of the space, and then it is not based on coordinates. A Möbius ball (or \(M\)-ball for short) of the space \(X\cup \{\infty\}\) is either a ball \(S\) of \(X\) or a hyperplane \(H\cup \{\infty\}\) of \(X\cup \{\infty\}\). A Möbius transformation is a bijection of \(X\cup \{\infty \}\) such that images and inverse images of \(M\)-balls are \(M\)-balls. In the paper, all Möbius transformations are determined, especially the involutorial ones. Furthermore, Möbius transformations are characterized within the group of Lie transformations of \(X\). The stereographic projection from a hypersphere of \(X\oplus R\) onto \(X\cup \{\infty\}\) is introduced and studied following the classical procedure. Finally Poincaré's model of hyperbolic geometry with respect to an \(M\)-ball \(B\) and one of its sides \(\Sigma\) is introduced. All bijections of \(\Sigma\) preserving hyperbolic distances are determined: they are all the Möbius transformations mapping \(\Sigma\) onto itself. It is also proved that Poincaré's model of hyperbolic geometry is isomorphic to that of Weierstrass whenever both models are constructed on the same vector space \(X\).