Total curvature of graphs after Milnor and Euler

DOI10.2140/PJM.2012.256.317zbMATH Open1253.53004arXiv1101.2305OpenAlexW2099367821MaRDI QIDQ433551FDOQ433551

Authors: Robert Gulliver, Sumio Yamada 

Publication date: 5 July 2012

Published in: Pacific Journal of Mathematics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: We define a new notion of total curvature, called net total curvature, for finite graphs embedded in Rn, and investigate its properties. Two guiding principles are given by Milnor's way of measuring the local crookedness of a Jordan curve via a Crofton-type formula, and by considering the double cover of a given graph as an Eulerian circuit. The strength of combining these ideas in defining the curvature functional is (1) it allows us to interpret the singular/non-eulidean behavior at the vertices of the graph as a superposition of vertices of a 1-dimensional manifold, and thus (2) one can compute the total curvature for a wide range of graphs by contrasting local and global properties of the graph utilizing the integral geometric representation of the curvature. A collection of results on upper/lower bounds of the total curvature on isotopy/homeomorphism classes of embeddings is presented, which in turn demonstrates the effectiveness of net total curvature as a new functional measuring complexity of spatial graphs in differential-geometric terms.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1101.2305

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zbMATH Keywords

spatial graphtotal curvaturenet total curvature

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Curves in Euclidean and related spaces (53A04) Graph theory (05C99) Flatness and tameness of topological manifolds (57N45)

Cited In (8)

• ISOTOPIC CONVERGENCE THEOREM
• Total curvature of graphs in space
• Variations of graphs in Riemannian manifolds
• Title not available (Why is that?)
• Convergence and isotopy type for graphs of finite total curvature
• Curvature on a graph via its geometric spectrum
• Curvature and unknottedness
• Total curvature of graphs in Euclidean spaces

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