Parallel and dual surfaces of cuspidal edges (Q901066)

It is well-known that cuspidal edges and swallowtails occur as generic singularities of wave fronts in \(\mathbb R^3\) [\textit{V. I. Arnold} et al., Singularities of differentiable maps, Volume 1. Classification of critical points, caustics and wave fronts. Transl. from the Russian by Ian Porteous, edited by V. I. Arnol'd. Reprint of the 1985 hardback edition. Boston, MA: Birkhäuser (2012; Zbl 1290.58001)]. On the other hand, parallel surfaces of a regular surface are fronts and may have singularities. There are many works devoted to the study of singularities of parallel surfaces and caustics from the viewpoint of singularity theory (e.g., [\textit{I. R. Porteous}, J. Differ. Geom. 5, 543--564 (1971; Zbl 0226.53010)]). The aim of the paper under review is to study parallel surfaces and dual surfaces of cuspidal edges. Thus, the author defines a notion of ridge points for cuspidal edges and describes relations between singularities on parallel surfaces and geometric properties of initial cuspidal edges similarly to [\textit{T. Fukui} and \textit{M. Hasegawa}, Tohoku Math. J. (2) 64, No. 3, 387--408 (2012; Zbl 1257.53005)], investigates the extended distance squared functions on cuspidal edges and proves that this function has \(D_4\)-singularities or worse, unlike the case of regular surfaces. He also studies dual surfaces and the extended height functions, describes relations between their singularities, etc.