No label defined (Q4263402)

The article provides a clear overview of discrete surfaces in three-dimensional Euclidean space. Together with discrete analogues of characteristic geometrical properties of special classes of surfaces and mappings, the geometry of discrete integrable systems is transparently illustrated by many interesting examples. The article is self-contained, numerous references and remarkable comments are given. A discrete surface is a map \(F:G\to\mathbb{R}^3\) where \(G\) is a planar graph ``made out of quadrilaterals'' and \(\mathbb{R}^3=\text{Im} \mathbb{H}\) is identified with the space of imaginary quaternions (a useful technical setting). Then, discrete asymptotic, curvature time, and Chebyshev nets admit a concise characterization (the cross-ratio of quaternions, corresponding to neighbouring points of \(G\), is employed) and gives surprisingly simple definitions of discrete constant Gaussian or constant mean curvature surfaces, discrete orthogonal coordinates, and discrete conformal maps. The classical Gauss-Codazzi equations, expressed by the Lax compatibility conditions, lead to natural discrete counterparts (like the discrete sine-Gordon equation), expressed in terms of discrete integrable systems which yield explicit constructions for the above mentioned discrete objects. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0918.00027].