Stable Gauss maps from a global viewpoint (Q2430810)

In this paper, the authors study the global behavior of the Gauss map on an orientable closed surface immersed in Euclidean 3-space. Let \(f : M \rightarrow \mathbb R^3\) be an immersion of a closed orientable surface \(M\) into \(\mathbb R^3\) and \(\mathcal N : M \rightarrow S^2\) the Gauss map of \(f\). The Gauss map \(\mathcal N\) is stable if there exists a neighborhood \(U_f\) of \(f\) in the space of immersions of \(M\) into \(\mathbb R^3\) such that for all \(g \in U_f\), the Gauss map of \(g\) is right-left equivalent to \(\mathcal N\). It is known that a stable Gauss map is also a stable map in the sense of Whitney when we consider it as the map between surfaces. The singular set of \(\mathcal N \) is the parabolic set of \(M\) associated to the immersion \(f\) and this set is a union of closed disjoint curves in \(M\). The authors define a bipartite weighted graph \(\mathcal G\) from a stable Gauss map \(\mathcal N\) and study properties of these graphs. First, by using \textit{J. R. Quine}'s formula [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 236, 307--314 (1978; Zbl 0379.57006)] and the degree formula of a Gauss map, the authors show that if the stable Gauss map of a generic embedding has no cusps, the number of parabolic curve is even. Next, as a main result, they prove that any weighted bipartite graph can be realized by a stable Gauss map of a generic embedding. To prove it inductively, the authors introduce three types of surgeries among Gauss maps and their corresponding graphs.