Constant principal strain mappings on 2-manifolds (Q2706210)

Like conformal mappings, constant principal strains, or cps, mappings arise naturally as mappings defined by point-independent conditions on their Jacobians. In the Euclidean plane, cps mappings are studied in cryptocrystallisation, plasticity ,and optimum structure theory. On general Riemannian 2-manifolds, cps mappings can be described in terms of the geodesic curvature of the curves of principal strains in the form of a nonlinear hyperbolic system of first-order partial differential equations. This is the approach taken by the authors who study mainly questions regarding blow-up and global existence of such systems in characteristic coordinates. NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEAs applications of this framework, the authors study cps mappings and their geometry on the hyperbolic plane. In particular, they give an explicit description of cps self-homeomorphisms of the hyperbolic plane. They also show the nonexistence of cps mapping of the Euclidean plane onto certain complete, noncompact 2-manifolds, such as the ``bumpy plane''. The paper ends with several comments about possible extensions to more general domains and to higher dimensions.