Geodesic nets with three boundary vertices

DOI10.4310/JDG/1631124286MaRDI QIDQ2073256zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors Fabian Parsch

Publication date 1 February 2022

Published in Journal of Differential Geometry (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.03728, https://projecteuclid.org/journals/journal-of-differential-geometry/volume-119/issue-1/Geodesic-nets-with-three-boundary-vertices/10.4310/jdg/1631124286.full

zbMATH Keywords

geodesic netnon-positively curved plane

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Geodesics in global differential geometry (53C22)

Abstract: We prove that a geodesic net with three boundary (= unbalanced) vertices on a non-positively curved plane has at most one balanced vertex. We do not assume any a priori bound for the degrees of unbalanced vertices. The result seems to be new even in the Euclidean case. We demonstrate by examples that the result is not true for metrics of positive curvature on the plane, and that there are no immediate generalizations of this result for geodesic nets with four unbalanced vertices.

Review text

In any surface with a Riemannian metric, a \textit{geodesic net} is a connected graph, embedded in the surface, with geodesic edges. A vertex is \textit{balanced} if the sum of outgoing unit tangents to its adjacent edges vanishes. Example: In the Euclidean plane, a triangle is a geodesic net whose vertices are all unbalanced. Example: given any three points of the Euclidean plane, forming the vertices of an acute triangle, we can find a fourth point so that the line segments from it to the three balance. The author proves that this configuration has the maximum number of balanced vertices with the given unbalanced vertices. He proves indeed that, in any nowhere positively curved surface, any geodesic net with three unbalanced vertices has at most one balanced vertex. He draws counterexamples with positively curved metrics, and shows that with four unbalanced vertices there is no straightforward generalization. The method of proof is very geometric and accessible and does not use heavy equipment.

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Cited in

(7)

• On critical nets in \({\mathbb{R}}^k\)
• Geodesic nets on the 2-sphere
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 2061155 (Why is no real title available?)
• Example of a nontrivial irreducible geodesic net in the plane
• Geodesic Nets: Some Examples and Open Problems
• About three-dimensional nets of Smolyak III
• On the existence of a balanced vertex in geodesic nets with three boundary vertices

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