What are the longest ropes on the unit sphere? (Q715299)

The spatial thickness of a continuous closed curve \(\gamma:{\mathbb S}^1\to {\mathbb R}^3\) of length \(L>0\) with arc-length parameterization \(\Gamma:[0,L]\to {\mathbb R}^3\) is \(\triangle[\gamma]=\inf R(\Gamma(s),\Gamma(t),\Gamma(\tau))\), where \(s,t,\tau\in [0,L)\), \(s\neq t\neq \tau\neq s\), and \(R(x,y,z)\) is the radius of the smallest circle containing \(x,y,z\in {\mathbb R}^3\), see [\textit{O. Gonzalez} and \textit{J. H. Maddocks}, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 96, No. 9, 4769--4773 (1999; Zbl 1057.57500)]. A curve with positive thickness is of class \(C^{1,1}\), as shown in [\textit{O. Gonzalez} et al., Calc. Var. Partial Differ. Equ. 14, No. 1, 29--68 (2002; Zbl 1006.49001)]. Existence of closed curves in the unit sphere \({\mathbb S}^2\) with maximal length and thickness larger than or equal to some constant \(\Theta>0\) was proved in the first author's Ph.D. Thesis in a very general setting. In this paper, the authors present in Theorem 1 a proof that, for each prescribed minimal thickness \(\Theta \in (0,1]\), there exists at least a curve of maximal length in the set of \(C^{1,1}\) closed curves in \({\mathbb S}^2\) with thickness larger than or equal to \(\Theta\). Moreover, they show that any such solution has spatial thickness \textit{equal to} \(\Theta\). The authors also construct, for each \(n\in {\mathbb N}\) and \(k\in \{1,\dots,n-1\}\) with \(\roman{gcd}(n,k)=1\), a curve \(\beta^{n,k}\) of maximal length in the class of \(C^{1,1}\) closed curves in \({\mathbb S}^2\) with spatial thickness larger than or equal to \(\Theta_n=\pi/(2n)\). They also prove that \(\triangle[\beta^{n,k}]=\Theta_n\). This is the main content of Theorem 2. In addition, they show in Theorem 3 that \(\beta^{n,k}\) are the only geometric solutions to this variational problem for \(\Theta=\Theta_n\), and that the number of solutions is \(\varphi(n)\), where \(\varphi\) is Euler's totient function. An interesting geometric characterization of the curves \(\beta^{n,k}\) is given in Theorem 4, where it is proved that the curves \(\beta^{n,k}\) are the only closed curves \(\gamma\) in \({\mathbb S}^2\) so that a spherical tubular neighborhood of radius \(\theta\in (0,\pi/2]\) of \(\gamma\) has area \(4\pi\), and the spatial thickness of \(\gamma\) is larger than or equal to \(\Theta=\sin\theta\in (0,1]\). If both conditions are satisfied, there exist \(n,k\in {\mathbb N}\) with \(\roman{gcd}(n,k)=1\) such that \(\theta=\arcsin\Theta_n\), \(\triangle[\beta]=\Theta_n\) and \(\gamma=\beta^{n,k}\). Interesting results of approximation by smooth loops with positive thickness are given in Section~3. In a final section, the case of open curves is considered.