The Ribaucour transformation in Lie sphere geometry (Q2432701)

In classical differential geometry there exist a lot of transformations, e.g., under the names of Bäcklund, Darboux, Eisenhart, Jonas, and others. In most cases, the term `transformation' is not quite adequate (though in common use) because one deals with pairs of submanifolds in a certain correspondence. Frequently, the correspondence is established on the base of an integrable first order system of PDEs. As a general geometric background the authors study the concept of a Ribaucour transformation defined as follows: Let \( F, \widehat{F}: \Sigma^{k} \to N \) be two immersions of a \( k \)-manifold into a space form \( N \) with commuting shape operators and such that for any \( p \in \Sigma^{k} \) there is a \( k \)-sphere \( S(p) \) having first order contact with \( F \) and \( \widehat{F} \) at \( p \). In this setting, the paper is mainly concerned with a permutability theorem, stating roughly: Given two transforms of submanifolds there is a fourth submanifold that is a simultaneous transform of the first two (Bianchi quadrilaterals). By suitable iteration, the permutability theorem leads to more complicated configurations like Bianchi cubes. It is emphasized that the Lie sphere geometry is the correct context because the main objects are Lie invariants. Lie sphere geometry has as `atomic' elements the oriented hyperspheres in the sphere, including those of radius zero (the latter being Lie-equivalent to genuine hyperspheres). The second half of the paper is devoted to specific geometric properties arising from the nature of an ambient Euclidean sphere, including one parameter families of transforms. The treatment is held in a modern language but is essentially elementary.