No label defined (Q3838293)

The real orthogonal circulant matrices of dimension \(n\) form a torus subgroup \(A(t_1,\dots,t_m)\) of \(SO_n\), where \(n=2m+1\) or \(n=2m+2\). Let \(\alpha_k(t)=2\sum_{j=1}^m\cos 2\pi(t_j-jk/n))\). Then a parametrization of the first column \((\sigma_1,\dots,\sigma_n)\) of \(A(t)\) is given by \(\sigma_k(t)=(1+\alpha_k(t))/n\) if \(n\) is odd and by \(\sigma_k(t)=(1+(-1)^k+\alpha_k(t))/n\) if \(n\) is even. The author uses \(A(t)\) to construct Steiner torus surfaces of polygons which generalize the Steiner ellipse of a triangle in the plane: With \(e_1,\dots,e_n\) being the canonical basis in \(\mathbb{R}^n\), \(n\) odd, he considers the `standard torus' \(A(t)e_1\) which contains all \(e_j\). If \(x_1,\dots,x_n\in \mathbb{R}^d\), the linear mapping \(e_i\mapsto x_i\) maps the standard torus to an \(m\)-surface interpolating the points \(x_i\). The one-parameter subgroup given by \(t(u) =(u,2u,\dots,mu)\) parametrizes a geodesic on the standard torus, and yields a curve interpolating the points \(x_k\). The case of even \(n\) is slightly different.