Abstract
In this work, we study the canal surfaces foliated by pseudo spheres along a Frenet curve in terms of their Gauss maps in Minkowski 3-space. Such kind of surfaces with pointwise 1-type Gauss maps are classified completely. For example, the canal surface with proper pointwise 1-type Gauss map of the first kind if and only if it is a part of a minimal surface of revolution.
1. Introduction
In the theory of surface, a kind of surface called canal surfaces will shaped by sweeping a family of spheres whose centers lie on a space curve in Euclidean 3-space. The geometric characters of such surfaces have been studied by many experts and geometers [1,2,3]. For example, the authors of [1] investigated the geometric properties of such surfaces, including the Gaussian curvature, the mean curvature and their relationships. As time goes on, the construction idea of canal surfaces in Euclidean 3-space is extended into the spaces with indefinite metric, especially into Lorentz–Minkowski space. In Minkowski 3-space, a canal surface can be formed as the envelope of a family of pseudo-Riemannian space forms, i.e., pseudo spheres , pseudo hyperbolic spheres and lightlike cones [4,5,6]. According to the classification of curves in Minkowski space, i.e., spacelike curve, timelike curve and lightlike (null) curve, there are nine types of canal surfaces in Minkowski 3-space. The parametric expressions and the fundamental geometric properties are stated by discussing the linear Weingarten canal surfaces in [4,5].
The idea of finite type immersion of Riemannian manifolds into Euclidean space (resp. pseudo Euclidean space) was introduced by B.Y. Chen in the late 1970s, which was extended into the differential maps on the submanifolds such as the Gauss maps. A submanifold in Euclidean space (resp. pseudo Euclidean space) whose Gauss map satisfies is said to have pointwise 1-type Gauss map for a non-zero smooth function f and a constant vector C, where is the Laplacian defined on stated by
where are the components of the inverse matrix of the first fundamental form of . In particular, it is said to be of the first kind or the second kind when the vector C is zero or non-zero, respectively. Furthermore, is said to be of proper pointwise 1-type if the function f is not constant, then a non-proper pointwise 1-type Gauss map is of ordinary 1-type. When the smooth function f vanishes, is said to be harmonic [7,8,9].
Based on the conclusions obtained in [1], the canal surface with pointwise 1-type Gauss map is discussed in [2]. In order to do further and complete geometric investigation for canal surfaces in Minkowski 3-space, the canal surfaces foliated by pseudo spheres along Frenet curves to be studied in the present work. In Section 2, some basic facts including the Frenet formulas of Frenet curves, the expression forms, and the relationships between the Gaussian curvatures and the mean curvatures of three types of canal surfaces are recalled. In Section 3, three types of canal surfaces with pointwise 1-type Gauss maps are classified completely.
The surfaces are smooth, regular, topologically connected unless otherwise stated in this paper.
2. Preliminaries
The Minkowski 3-space is provided with the standard indefinite flat metric given by
in terms of the natural coordinate system . A vector v is called to be spacelike, timelike and lightlike (null), if or , and , , respectively. The norm of the vector v is defined by . According to the causal character of the tangent vectors, the curves are divided into spacelike, timelike, or lightlike (null) curves. Furthermore, a spacelike curve is classified into the first kind, the second kind spacelike curve or the null type spacelike curve (the pseudo null curve) when the normal vector is spacelike, timelike or lightlike, separately.
Remark 1
([10]). Timelike curves and spacelike curves with spacelike or timelike normal vectors are called Frenet curves in Minkowski space.
Proposition 1
([4]). Let be a Frenet curve parameterized by arc length s with Frenet frame . Then, the following Frenet equations are satisfied:
where α is the tangent vector, β and γ is the normal vector and the binormal vector of , respectively. When is a timelike curve, ; when is a spacelike curve of the first kind, ; when is a spacelike curve of the second kind, . The function , is said to be the curvature and the torsion of , respectively.
Proposition 2
([4]). Let p be a fixed point, be a constant in . Then, the pseudo-Riemannian space forms, i.e., the de-Sitter space , the hyperbolic space and the lightlike cone are defined by
In particular, when and the center p is the origin, we write them by , and simply.
Definition 1
([6]). A surface in is called a canal surface which is formed as the envelope of a family of pseudo spheres (resp. pseudo hyperbolic spheres or lightlike cones ) whose centers lie on a space curve framed by . can be parameterized by
where λ, μ, and ω are differential functions of s and θ, , or . The curve is called the center curve, is called the radial function of .
Precisely, if is foliated by pseudo spheres (resp. pseudo hyperbolic spheres or lightlike cones ), then (resp. or 0) and is said to be of type (resp. or ). In addition, the canal surface of type can be classified into (resp. or ) when is spacelike (resp. timelike or null). Moreover, when is the first kind, the second kind spacelike curve and the pseudo null curve, , is denoted by , and , respectively. Similarly, the canal surfaces (resp. ) can be classified into , and (resp. , and ). Naturally, (resp. ) can be divided into , and (resp. , and ) [5].
Remark 2.
In the present work, we consider the canal surfaces foliated by pseudo spheres which have Frenet curves as center curves, i.e., the canal surfaces of type , and .
In [4], the canal surfaces , and are expressed by
For convenience, the authors assumed for and , for , where is a smooth function, then the canal surfaces , and are rewritten by
Example 1.
Let be a spacelike curve, the radial function , then the canal surface can be expressed as (see Figure 1)
Figure 1.
() with .
Example 2.
Let be a timelike curve, the radial function , then the canal surface can be expressed as (see Figure 2)
Figure 2.
with .
Proposition 3
([4]). For the canal surface (resp. , the Gaussian curvature K and the mean curvature H satisfy
Remark 3.
By Proposition 3, the principal curvatures of the canal surface (resp. are given by
3. Main Conclusions
In this section, the classifications of three types of canal surfaces are discussed in terms of their Gauss maps. We prove the results for and omit the proofs for and since they can be similarly done to those of in what follows.
3.1. The Canal Surfaces of Type with Pointwise 1-Type Gauss Maps
From Equation (2), the canal surface is parameterized as
where , () is a smooth function.
Through direct calculations, we have initially
where
Thus, the Gauss map of is
which points towards inside and .
Meanwhile, the quantities of the first fundamental form are obtained as
and the quantities of the second fundamental form are written by
where
Remark 4.
From due to regularity, we see that everywhere.
Serving the following discussion, the Laplacian of the Gauss map of needs to be calculated. First, from the first fundamental form of , we have
Substituting (6), (7), and (11) into (1), and by putting
where
after complicated arrangements, we get
Assume that a canal surface satisfies . Without loss of generality, we may suppose
where .
From the last two equations of (16), we have
Since constructs a set of linearly independent functions, in view of the coefficients of and in (18) by the aid of (5), (7), and (13), we have
From (19), we consider a non-empty open subset of . Since , , then we have on . However, if , (18) gives
which contradicts the regularity of . Hence, , is a surface of revolution.
Putting and , can be represented by
Furthermore, when , the first equation of (16) gives
Because are all functions of s when , Equation (20) yields . Then, by the last two equations of (16), we obtain
Because , and , Equation system (21) implies . In addition,
Noticing that the principal curvatures are given by
when , and thus the Gaussian curvature K, the mean curvature H can be abbreviated as
Due to , the mean curvature cannot be a constant. With the help of (10), Equation (23) can be rewritten as
Conversely, if is a surface of revolution which satisfies (28), then is satisfied for a non-zero function f as stated by (24) and a constant vector in which is a non-zero constant.
Theorem 1.
A canal surface has a proper pointwise 1-type Gauss map of the second kind iff it is a surface of revolution with the following form:
which satisfies (28).
Corollary 1.
A canal surface with proper pointwise 1-type Gauss map of the second kind satisfies for a constant vector and non-zero smooth function
where H and K are given by (26), and is a non-zero constant.
Corollary 2.
A canal surface has 1-type Gauss map of the second kind iff it is a surface of revolution represented as
which satisfies (30).
Proof.
When a canal surface satisfies , , by Theorem 1, is a surface of revolution which satisfies (28). By Corollary 1, we get
The converse is straightforward. □
Theorem 2.
A canal surface has proper pointwise 1-type Gauss map of the first kind iff it is minimal. Precisely, it is a part of a surface of revolution as
which satisfies (33).
Proof.
A canal surface has proper pointwise 1-type Gauss map of the first kind, i.e., for some smooth function f. From Equation (14), we have
From the last two equations of (31), we get
with the help of Equation (7), we obtain . Therefore, due to . Furthermore, from the first two equations of (31), we get . It is obvious that . Then, the mean curvature of is constant.
By the Corollary 3.6 of [4], i.e., the canal surface with non-zero constant mean curvature does not exist, thus the canal surface is minimal. From the Theorem 3.8 of [4], it is a part of a surface of revolution with the following form:
which satisfies
Looking back the Equation (31) with the conclusions obtained above, we have
Corollary 3.
A canal surface with proper pointwise 1-type Gauss map of the first kind satisfies
Assume that a canal surface satisfies , . By Corollary 3, we have is a constant, i.e., r is a constant. Thus, we have the following result.
Corollary 4.
A canal surface has 1-type Gauss map of the first kind iff it is a circular cylinder.
From Corollary 3, the following conclusion is straightforward since .
Corollary 5.
The canal surface with harmonic Gauss map does not exist.
3.2. The Canal Surfaces of Type with Pointwise 1-Type Gauss Maps
From Equation (3), the canal surface is parameterized as
where , is a smooth function.
Through direct calculations, we have initially
where
Thus, the Gauss map of is
which points towards inside and .
Meanwhile, the quantities of the first fundamental form are obtained as
the quantities of the second fundamental form are written by
where
Remark 5.
From due to regularity, we see that everywhere.
Next, the Laplacian of the Gauss map of is to be calculated. First, from the first fundamental form of , we have
Due to discussions similar to those of , we have the following conclusions directly.
Theorem 3.
A canal surface has proper pointwise 1-type Gauss map of the second kind iff it is a surface of revolution with the following form:
which satisfies
where is a non-zero constant.
Corollary 6.
A canal surface with proper pointwise 1-type Gauss map of the second kind satisfies for a constant vector and non-zero smooth function
where is a non-zero constant, H and K are given by
Corollary 7.
A canal surface has 1-type Gauss map of the second kind iff it is a surface of revolution represented as
which satisfies
Theorem 4.
A canal surface has proper pointwise 1-type Gauss map of the first kind iff it is minimal. Precisely, it is a part of a surface of revolution as
which satisfies
Corollary 8.
A canal surface with proper pointwise 1-type Gauss map of the first kind satisfies
Corollary 9.
A canal surface has 1-type Gauss map of the first kind iff it is a circular cylinder.
Corollary 10.
The canal surface with harmonic Gauss map does not exist.
3.3. The Canal Surfaces of Type with Pointwise 1-Type Gauss Maps
From Equation (4), the canal surface is parameterized as
where , is a smooth function.
Through direct calculations, we have initially
where
Thus, the Gauss map of is
which points towards inside and .
Meanwhile, the quantities of the first fundamental form are obtained as
and the quantities of the second fundamental form are written by
where
Remark 6.
From due to regularity, we see that everywhere.
In the following, the Laplacian of the Gauss map of is to be calculated. First, from the first fundamental form of , we have
Substituting (39), (40), and (43) into (1), by putting
where
through complicated arrangements, we get
Due to discussions similar to those of and , the following results for can be given directly.
Theorem 5.
A canal surface has proper pointwise 1-type Gauss map of the second kind iff it is a surface of revolution with the following form:
which satisfies
where is a non-zero constant.
Corollary 11.
A canal surface with proper pointwise 1-type Gauss map of the second kind satisfies for a constant vector and non-zero smooth function
where is a non-zero constant, H and K are given by
Corollary 12.
A canal surface has 1-type Gauss map of the second kind iff it is a surface of revolution represented as
where satisfies
Theorem 6.
A canal surface has proper pointwise 1-type Gauss map of the first kind iff it is minimal. Precisely, it is a part of a surface of revolution as
which satisfies
Corollary 13.
A canal surface with proper pointwise 1-type Gauss map of the first kind satisfies
Corollary 14.
A canal surface has 1-type Gauss map of the first kind iff it is a circular cylinder.
Corollary 15.
The canal surface with harmonic Gauss map does not exist.
Until now, the canal surfaces foliated by pseudo spheres along the Frenet curves, i.e., , , and have been classified in terms of their Gauss maps completely. The similar works for the canal surfaces , and will be done in the near future. At the same time, considering that the canal surfaces foliated by lightlike cones along a space curve are degenerate [4,5], the canal surfaces , (resp. , ) foliated by pseudo spheres (resp. pseudo hyperbolic spheres ) along a pseudo null curve or a null curve, respectively, are to be investigated in our future works.
Author Contributions
J.Q., X.T. and X.F. set up the problem and calculated the details. Y.H.K. checked and polished the draft. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding
The first author was supported by NSFC (No. 11801065) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (N2005012). The fourth author was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (NRF-2020R1I1A3051852).
Acknowledgments
We thank the referee for the careful review and the valuable comments to improve the paper.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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