Global inequalities for curves and surfaces in three-space (Q752486)

The aim of this interesting article is to give upper bounds for the total absolute curvature of smooth curves in the plane and closed surfaces in the Euclidean 3-space in terms of other geometric quantities. For the validity of these inequalities some genericity conditions have to be assumed which in every single case are shown to be satisfied by a sufficiently large class of curves resp. surfaces. Indications are given how the results can be extended to the simplicial case. For a closed regular curve \(\gamma\) in the plane it is shown that \(K<\pi (2+fd/2)\) which is related to the authors' result in [Geom. Dedicata 22, 105--115 (1987; Zbl 0611.53003)]. Here \(K\) denotes the total absolute curvature of \(\gamma\), \(d\) is its geometric degree and \(f\) is its number of inflection points which is assumed to be finite. The curve is allowed to have normal crossing points and cusps. In the case \(d=4\) the authors present some sharper estimate given by \(K<\pi (4+f)\). The main tool for the proof is a deeper investigation of the location of the inflection points of \(\gamma\) which is described by the depth of an inflection point. In the case of a closed surface in 3-space the natural extensions of the notions used for the estimate of the total absolute curvature of a curve do not suffice for the description of a similar estimate. The geometric quantities which are used in this case in addition to the genus of the surface can be characterized in terms of the geometry and the topology of the apparent contours of the surface in plane projections and the set of parabolic points. Then, using these quantities and their results obtained for plane curves, the authors are able to derive an interesting estimate for the total absolute curvature of the surface which cannot be described here in detail. They also present a lot of examples which should convince the reader that it is almost impossible to obtain estimates of the same quality which use sets of simpler geometric invariants only.