The structure of continuous rigid functions of two variables (Q987922)

A function \(f:\mathbb R^n \to \mathbb R\) is called vertically rigid if the graph of the function \(cf\) is isometric to the graph of \(f\) for all real numbers \(c \neq 0\). The main result of the paper gives a complete description of the continuous vertically rigid functions of two variables. Theorem. A continuous function \(f:\mathbb R^2 \to \mathbb R\) is vertically rigid if and only if, after a suitable rotation around the \(z\)-axis, \(f(x,y)\) is of the form \(a+bx+dy, a+s(y)e^{kx}\) or \(a+be^{kx}+dy\) (\(a,b,d,k \in \mathbb R\), \(k \neq 0\), \(s:\mathbb R \to \mathbb R\) continuous).