Total curvature for \(C^\infty\)-singular surfaces with limiting tangent bundle (Q2573741)

The authors generalize the well-known notion of the total curvature for an immersed surface in Euclidean 3-space \(E^2\) to a special class of singular surfaces. These singular surfaces are defined by means of a 1-resolvable, discriminant transverse, smooth map \(j : M \rightarrow E^3\), where \(M\) is a closed oriented surface. Such a map \(j\) fails to be an immersion along a set of smooth closed embedded curves \(D_0 \subset M\), but yet \(j\) still has a globally defined smooth unit normal \(\eta : M \rightarrow S^2\). The total curvature of \(j\) is the sum of a two-dimensional integral (the total curvature of the regular part of \(M\)) and a one-dimensional integral (the total curvature of the curves of singularities). The authors develop various inequalities and lower bounds for the total curvature in terms of differential geometric and topologic invariants of \(M\) and \(j\). They present many examples of singular surfaces which attain these lower bounds.