Common tangents to spheres in R^3

DOI10.1007/S00454-005-1230-YMaRDI QIDQ818699zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Xavier Goaoc, Sylvain Lazard, Sylvain Petitjean, Ciprian S. Borcea

Publication date 21 March 2006

Published in Discrete \& Computational Geometry (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0402394

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Surfaces in Euclidean and related spaces (53A05) Computer graphics; computational geometry (digital and algorithmic aspects) (68U05)

Abstract: We study the variety of common tangents for up to four quadric surfaces in projective three-space, with particular regard to configurations of four quadrics admitting a continuum of common tangents. We formulate geometrical conditions in the projective space defined by all complex quadric surfaces which express the fact that several quadrics are tangent along a curve to one and the same quadric of rank at least three, and called, for intuitive reasons: a basket. Lines in any ruling of the latter will be common tangents. These considerations are then restricted to spheres in Euclidean three-space, and result in a complete answer to the question over the reals: ``When do four spheres allow infinitely many common tangents?.

Review text

In the same journal \textit{I. G. Macdonald}, \textit{J. Pach} and \textit{T. Theobald} in [Discrete Comput. Geom. 26, No. 1, 1--17 (2001; Zbl 0989.51013)] and \textit{O. Devillers}, \textit{B. Mourrain}, \textit{F. P. Preparata} and \textit{P. Trebuchet} in [Discrete Comput. Geom. 29, No. 1, 83--104 (2003; Zbl 1031.52008)] proved that four unit spheres in \(\mathbb{R}^3\) have in general at most 12 common tangents, but Megyesi in 2001 established that it drops to 8 in the case of unit spheres with coplanar non-collinear centers. In [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 354, No. 12, 4815--4829 (2002; Zbl 1063.14066)] \textit{F. Sottile} and \textit{T. Theobald} proved that there are \(3\cdot 2^{n-1}\) complex common tangent lines to \(2n-2\) general spheres in \(\mathbb{R}^n\), and that there exists a choice of spheres with all common tangents real. In the present paper it is proved that four distinct spheres in \(\mathbb{R}^3\) have infinitely many real common tangents if and only if they have aligned centers and at least one real common tangent.

Recommendations

• Common tangents to four unit balls in \(\mathbb{R}^3\)
• Lines tangent to $2n-2$ spheres in ${\mathbb R}^n$
• Mutually tangent spheres in n-space
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 4054460
• Parallel Tangency in ${\mathbb R^3}$
• Common tangents to planar parametric curves: A geometric solution
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3897734
• Tangent ball embeddings of sets in \(E^ 3\)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 519817
• Sphere tangencies, line incidences and Lie's line-sphere correspondence

Cited in

(18)

• The Voronoi diagram of three lines
• Distinct distances between points and lines
• Configurations of \(2n-2\) quadrics in \(\mathbb{R}^n\) with \(3\cdot 2 ^{n-1}\) common tangent lines
• On the number of flats tangent to convex hypersurfaces in random position
• Line transversals to disjoint balls
• The envelope of lines meeting a fixed line and tangent to two spheres
• Geometric permutations of non-overlapping unit balls revisited
• Five spheres in mutual contact
• Lines tangent to $2n-2$ spheres in ${\mathbb R}^n$
• Mutually tangent spheres in n-space
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 4054460 (Why is no real title available?)
• On the complexity of sets of free lines and line segments among balls in three dimensions
• How to realize a given number of tangents to four unit balls in ℝ ³
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 778318 (Why is no real title available?)
• Quadritangent spheres
• Cylinders Through Five Points: Complex and Real Enumerative Geometry
• Common tangents to four unit balls in \(\mathbb{R}^3\)
• Lines tangent to four unit spheres with coplanar centres

This page was built for publication: Common tangents to spheres in \(\mathbb R^{3}\)

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q818699)