Parameterized discrete uniformization theorems and curvature flows for polyhedral surfaces. I (Q6652166)

Consider a triangulated surface with vertex set \(V\) and a piecewise linear (PL) metric \(d\), which is a flat cone metric, such that all cone points are contained in \(V\). The usual combinatorial curvature of the triangulation with respect to \(d\) is generalized in this article to a family of \(\alpha\)-curvatures depending on a parameter \(\alpha \in \mathbb{R}\). This \(\alpha\)-curvature uses the vertex-scaled metric \(w \ast d\) instead of the original metric \(d\). Here \(w: V \to (0, \infty)\) is a conformal factor for \(d\), i.\,e. the vertex-scaled function \(w \ast d\) induces a well-defined PL metric on the surface. The \(\alpha\)-curvature at a vertex \(i\) is defined as a rescaling\N\[\NR_{\alpha, i} = \frac{K_i}{w_i^\alpha}\N\]\Nof the usual curvature \(K_i\) at \(i\).\N\NThe article is mainly devoted to generalizing many of the properties of the usual curvature and its curvature flows to the \(\alpha\)-variants. Among them is a discrete uniformization theorem, which -- under certain conditions -- ensures the existence of a PL metric with constant \(\alpha\)-curvature in the conformal class of \(d\) in the sense of \textit{X. D. Gu} et al. [J. Differ. Geom. 109, No. 2, 223--256 (2018; Zbl 1396.30008)].\N\NFurthermore, the author introduces \(\alpha\)-parametrized versions of the Yamabe flow by \textit{F. Luo} [Commun. Contemp. Math. 6, No. 5, 765--780 (2004; Zbl 1075.53063)] and of the Calabi flow by \textit{H. Ge} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 370, No. 2, 1377--1391 (2018; Zbl 1412.53091)] to examine their convergence behaviour. As singularities can appear in both types of flows, a surgery approach is used. It is then proved that the surgery-treated \(\alpha\)-Yamabe and \(\alpha\)-Calabi flows exist in all times and admit a constant \(\alpha\)-curvature limit in the conformal class of \(d\).