Common tangents to spheres in R^3

DOI10.1007/S00454-005-1230-YzbMATH Open1090.53005arXivmath/0402394OpenAlexW1980261256MaRDI QIDQ818699FDOQ818699

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)

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?.

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

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

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

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

Cited In (18)

• Five spheres in mutual contact
• Geometric permutations of non-overlapping unit balls revisited
• How to realize a given number of tangents to four unit balls in ℝ ³
• On the number of flats tangent to convex hypersurfaces in random position
• Mutually tangent spheres in \(n\)-space
• On the complexity of sets of free lines and line segments among balls in three dimensions
• Configurations of \(2n-2\) quadrics in \(\mathbb{R}^n\) with \(3\cdot 2 ^{n-1}\) common tangent lines
• Cylinders Through Five Points: Complex and Real Enumerative Geometry
• Lines tangent to $2n-2$ spheres in ${\mathbb R}^n$
• Common tangents to four unit balls in \(\mathbb{R}^3\)
• Lines tangent to four unit spheres with coplanar centres
• Distinct distances between points and lines
• The Voronoi diagram of three lines
• Line transversals to disjoint balls
• The envelope of lines meeting a fixed line and tangent to two spheres
• Quadritangent spheres
• Title not available (Why is that?)
• Title not available (Why is that?)

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)