A curvature theory for discrete surfaces based on mesh parallelity (Q985687)

The authors develop a general theory of curvatures of discrete surfaces in the Euclidean 3-space. Their approach is based on a discrete version of the classical Steiner formula \(dA(m^t)=(1-2Ht+Kt^2)dA(m)\), where \(m\) stands for the position vector of a smooth surface, \(s\) is its Gauss map, \(m^t=m+ts\) defines surfaces parallel to \(m\) (that are smooth for sufficiently small \(t\)), \(dA\) is the infinitesimal area of the corresponding surface, and \(H\) and \(K\) are the mean and the Gauss curvatures of the surface \(m\), respectively. The authors found that the notion of mixed area plays an important role when the classical Steiner formula is used to define curvatures of polyhedral surfaces. They show that this new approach is more general than previously known definitions of curvatures for discrete surfaces studied, e.g., in [\textit{A. Bobenko} and \textit{U. Pinkall}, J. Reine Angew. Math. 475, 187--208 (1996; Zbl 0845.53005)], [\textit{A. I. Bobenko}, \textit{T. Hoffmann} and \textit{B. A. Springborn}, Ann. Math. 164, 231--264 (2006; Zbl 1122.53003)], and [\textit{A. Bobenko} and \textit{Yu. B. Suris}, Discrete differential geometry. Integrable structure. Graduate Studies in Mathematics 98. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society (AMS) (2008; Zbl 1158.53001)].