Immersions of Lorentzian surfaces in \(\mathbb R^{2,1}\) (Q931156)

The paper presents several theorems about the existence of conformal or isometric immersions of a Lorentzian surface \(M\) into pseudo-Euclidean space \(\mathbb{R}^{2,1}\). Each theorem is of the type that existence of such an immersion is shown to be equivalent to the existence of a solution to a certain spinor equation on \(M\). The proofs use methods from para-complex geometry which are briefly reviewed at the beginning of the paper. The results lead to an invariant representation of Lorentzian surfaces in \(\mathbb{R}^{2,1}\) in terms of spinors, in analogy to a representation of Riemannian surfaces in Euclidean space \(\mathbb{R}^3\) found by \textit{T. Friedrich} [J. Geom. Phys. 28, 143--157 (1998; Zbl 0966.53042)].