Regular homotopy and total curvature. I: Circle immersions into surfaces (Q2492037)
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scientific article; zbMATH DE number 5029610
- Regular homotopy and total curvature. II: Sphere immersions into 3-space
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
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| English | Regular homotopy and total curvature. I: Circle immersions into surfaces |
scientific article; zbMATH DE number 5029610 |
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Regular homotopy and total curvature. I: Circle immersions into surfaces (English)
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Regular homotopy and total curvature. II: Sphere immersions into 3-space (English)
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1 June 2006
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Let~\(\Sigma\) be a complete orientable surface with a Riemannian metric, and let~\(c\colon S^1\to\Sigma\) be an immersion. Two such immersions are called regularly homotopic if they are homotopic through a family of immersions. By the \(h\)-principle of Hirsch and Smale, this is the case if their unit tangent vectors define homotopic maps to the unit tangent bundle~\(U\Sigma\). The total absolute geodesic curvature~\(\kappa(c)\) is the integral of the absolute value of the geodesic curvature of~\(c\). The author investigates the infimum of~\(\kappa(c)\) in a given regular homotopy class. He proves that if the Gauß\ curvature~\(K\) is nonvanishing then the infimum can only be attained by geodesics, whereas if~\(K=0\), then the infimum is attained either by geodesics or by locally convex curves. In both cases, each local minimum of~\(\kappa\) is global in the given regular homotopy class. For general metrics, no such statement is possible. For flat~\(\Sigma\) the author also computes the homotopy type of the space of minimizers. Given two immersions~\(c_0\), \(c_1\colon S^1\to\Sigma\), the author considers~\(\max_t\kappa(c_t)\) for all regular homotopies~\(c_t\) connecting~\(c_0\) and~\(c_1\). For example he proves that on the round sphere, one can always achieve~\(\max_t\kappa(c_t) \leq\max\{\kappa(c_0),\kappa(c_1),2\pi+\epsilon\}\) if~\(\epsilon>0\). On the other hand, if~\(c_0\) runs~\(m\) times around a geodesic and \(c_1\) runs \(m+2\) times around a geodesic, then~\(\max_t\kappa(c_t)>2\pi\). In the proof, the author uses piecewise geodesics with curvature concentrations (PGC curves). These are closed piecewise geodesic curves, where the unit tangent vector of the incoming edge at each vertex~\(p\) is joined to the unit vector of the outgoing edge through a curve in~\(U_p\Sigma\). Each PGC curve~\(c\) defines a loop in~\(U\Sigma\), and~\(\kappa(c)\) is well-defined. In some cases, the infimum of the total absolute geodesic curvature in a regular homotopy class is attained by a PGC curve. [For Part II see Zbl 1114.53049.]
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Let \(f\colon S^2\to\mathbb R^3\) be an immersion. The author considers the total curvature \(\kappa(f)\) defined as the integral of the absolute Gauß\ curvature \(K\) of \(f\), or equivalently, the area of the Gauß\ map \(\nu\colon S^2\to S^2\). It follows from the Hirsch-Smale \(h\)-principle that all immersions of \(S^2\) into \(\mathbb R^3\) are regularly homotopic, i.e., homotopic through a family of immersions. Regular homotopies between the standard embedding \(S^2\hookrightarrow\mathbb R^3\) and the standard embedding composed with the antipodal map are known as sphere eversions. The author constructs sphere eversions \(h\colon S^2\times[0,1]\to\mathbb R^3\) for all \(\varepsilon>0\) such that \(\kappa(h_t)\leq 8\pi+\varepsilon\) for all \(t\in[0,1]\). It is not known whether \(8\pi\) is a lower bound for \(\max\kappa(h_t)\). The author then investigates local minima of the total Gauß-Kronecker curvature for immersed hypersurfaces in \(\mathbb R^{n+1}\). He proves that a local minimum \(f\colon S^2\to\mathbb R^3\) where \(0\) is a regular value of \(K\) is a relatively isotopy tight immersion in the sense of \textit{N. H. Kuiper} and \textit{W. Meeks III}, [Invent. Math. 77, 25--69 (1984; Zbl 0553.53034)]. Using their structure theorem for such immersions, he shows that every component of \(K^{-1}(-\infty,0]\) is an annulus. This implies that \(f\) is not injective. [For Part I, cf. the author, Algebr. Geom. Topol. 6, 459--492 (2006; Zbl 1113.53041).]
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total geodesic curvature
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circle immersions
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PGC curve
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total Gauss curvature
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sphere immersion
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sphere eversion
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relatively isotopy tight immersion
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