Evolving to non-round Weingarten spheres: integer linear Hopf flows

Brendan Guilfoyle () and Wilhelm Klingenberg ()
Additional contact information
Brendan Guilfoyle: Munster Technological University, Kerry
Wilhelm Klingenberg: University of Durham

Partial Differential Equations and Applications, 2021, vol. 2, issue 6, 1-26

Abstract: Abstract In the 1950’s Hopf gave examples of non-round convex 2-spheres in Euclidean 3-space with rotational symmetry that satisfy a linear relationship between their principal curvatures. In this paper, we investigate conditions under which evolving a smooth convex rotationally symmetric sphere by a linear combination of its radii of curvature yields a Hopf sphere. When the coefficients of the flow have certain integer values, the fate of an initial sphere is entirely determined by the local geometry of its isolated umbilic points. A variety of behaviours is uncovered: convergence to round spheres and non-round Hopf spheres, as well as divergence to infinity. The critical quantity is the rate of vanishing of the astigmatism—the difference of the radii of curvature—at the isolated umbilic points. It is proven that the size of this quantity versus the coefficient in the flow function determines the fate of the evolution. The geometric setting for the equation is Radius of Curvature space, viewed as a pair of hyperbolic/AdS half-planes joined along their boundary, the umbilic horizon. A rotationally symmetric sphere determines a parameterized curve in this plane with end-points on the umbilic horizon. The slope of the curve at the umbilic horizon is linked by the Codazzi–Mainardi equations to the rate of vanishing of astigmatism, and for generic initial conditions can be used to determine the outcome of the flow. The slope can jump during the flow, and a number of examples are given: instant jumps of the initial slope, as well as umbilic circles that contract to points in finite time and ‘pop’ the slope. Finally, we present soliton-like solutions: curves that evolve under linear flows by mutual hyperbolic/AdS isometries (dilation and translation) of Radius of Curvature space. A forthcoming paper will apply these geometric ideas to non-linear curvature flows.

Keywords: Parabolic evolution; Curvature flow; Convex sphere; Rotational symmetry; Primary 35K10; Secondary 53A05 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s42985-021-00128-1 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:pardea:v:2:y:2021:i:6:d:10.1007_s42985-021-00128-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.springer.com/journal/42985/

DOI: 10.1007/s42985-021-00128-1

Access Statistics for this article

Partial Differential Equations and Applications is currently edited by Zhitao Zhang

More articles in Partial Differential Equations and Applications from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().