A new curvature theory for surfaces in a euclidean 4-space
A new curvature theory for surfaces in a euclidean 4-space
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欧几里得 4 空间曲面的新曲率理论
DOI:
10.1007/bf02564298
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发表时间:
1952
期刊:
影响因子:
--
通讯作者:
Y. Wong
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
Y. Wong
In the study of local properties of surfaces in the Euclidean 4-space R4, our attention has so far centred on the Kommerell conic (Kommerell [7], p. 553) and the curvature ellipse (Schouten-Struik [11], pp. 104--111). Let~,~'be the tangent and normal planes of a surface (A) at the point A. Then the Kommerell conic (K) of (A) at A is the locus of the point K of intersection of~'by the normal planes of (A) consecutive to~'. The curvature ellipse (G), also lying in~', is obtained as follows. Let J be any tangent unit vector of (A) at A, and (C) any curve on (A) tangent to J at A; then the component in~'of the curvature vector of (C) at A, with respect to R4, depends only on J (~ r Theorem); the locus of the end point of this component as J takes on all the directions in~ is the curvature ellipse (G). The conics (K) and (G) are polar reciprocal of each other with respect to the unit circle in~'. Analytically, the introduction of (G) into the study of surfaces in R4 is quite natural because (G) is tied up closely with the two fundamental forms of (A) on which the Gauss-Codazzi-Ricci equations of (A) depend. Geometrically, however, the introduction of (K) is more natural. In view of the fact that the first curvature of a curve is defined to be the rate of change of the angle between two consecutive tangent lines, it is rather surprising that no systematic study has been made of the corresponding role played by the two angles (cf. w 1.4) between a pair of consecutive tangent planes of a surface in R a. As far as the author is aware, the only known results in which these two angles play a direct or indirect part are the conjugate directions, the Kwietniewski-Kommerell-Eisenhart theorem (w 1.3), and the" principal directions" of Struik [12] on an m-surface in a Riemannian n-space, which for a surface in R4 are identical with the principal directions of the function~ defined later in w 1.5. The purpose of this paper is to present a curvature theory for surfaces in R4 based on the two angles between consecutive tangent planes of the