Lie sphere geometry. With applications to submanifolds (Q5920352)

This book provides a clear and comprehensive modern treatment of Lie sphere geometry and its applications to the study of submanifolds. It begins with the construction of the space of spheres, including the fundamental notions of oriented contact, parabolic pencils of spheres, and Lie sphere transformations. The link to submanifold theory is established via the Legendre map, which provides a powerful framework for the study of submanifolds, especially those characterized by restrictions on their curvature spheres. In comparison with the first edition [New York etc.: Springer-Verlag (1992; Zbl 0752.53003)] a new section is added which describes the construction of isoparametric hypersurfaces with four principal curvatures due to Ferus, Karcher, and Münzner, based on representations of Clifford algebras. Substantially the presentation of the invariance of tautness under Lie sphere transformations is revised: a different proof due to J. C. Álvarez Paiva is given. This leads to a very natural proof of the Lie invariance of tautness. Sections regarding reducible Dupin hypersurfaces and the cyclides of Dupin have also been significantly revised; 11 new figures illustrating these cyclides have been added. The surveys of known results have all been updated to reflect the current state of research.