Numerical computation of the cut locus via a variational approximation of the distance function

We propose a new method for the numerical computation of the cut locus of a compact submanifold of R3 without boundary. This method is based on a convex variational problem with conic constraints, with proven convergence. We illustrate the versatility of our approach by the approximation of Voronoi cells on embedded surfaces of R3.

A diagrammatic presentation and its characterization of non-split compact surfaces in the 3-sphere

We give a presentation for a non-split compact surface embedded in the 3-sphere [Formula: see text] by using diagrams of spatial trivalent graphs equipped with signs and we define Reidemeister moves for such signed diagrams. We show that two diagrams of embedded surfaces are related by Reidemeister moves if and only if the surfaces represented by the diagrams are ambient isotopic in [Formula: see text].

Principal Foliations of Surfaces near Ellipsoids

The lines of curvature of a surface embedded in $\R^3$ comprise its principal foliations. Principal foliations of surfaces embedded in $\R^3$ resemble phase portraits of two dimensional vector fields, but there are significant differences in their geometry because principal foliations are not orientable. The Poincar\'e-Bendixson Theorem precludes flows on the two sphere $S^2$ with recurrent trajectories larger than a periodic orbit, but there are convex surfaces whose principal foliations are closely related to non-vanishing vector fields on the torus $T^2$. This paper investigates families of such surfaces that have dense lines of curvature at a Cantor set $C$ of parameters. It introduces discrete one dimensional return maps of a cross-section whose trajectories are the intersections of a line of curvature with the cross-section. The main result proved here is that the return map of a generic surface has \emph{breaks}; i.e., jump discontinuities of its derivative. Khanin and Vul discovered a qualitative difference between one parameter families of smooth diffeomorphisms of the circle and those with breaks: smooth families have positive Lebesgue measure sets of parameters with irrational rotation number and dense trajectories while families of diffeomorphisms with a single break do not. This paper discusses whether Lebesgue almost all parameters yield closed lines of curvature in families of embedded surfaces.

Four-dimensional aspects of tight contact 3-manifolds

We conjecture a four-dimensional characterization of tightness: A contact structure on a 3-manifold Y is tight if and only if a slice-Bennequin inequality holds for smoothly embedded surfaces in Y×[0,1]. An affirmative answer to our conjecture would imply an analogue of the Milnor conjecture for torus knots: If a fibered link L induces a tight contact structure on Y, then its fiber surface maximizes the Euler characteristic among all surfaces in Y×[0,1] with boundary L. We provide evidence for both conjectures by proving them for contact structures with nonvanishing Ozsváth–Szabó contact invariant.

On the Plateau-Douglas Problem for the Willmore energy of surfaces with planar boundary curves

For a smooth closed embedded planar curve, we consider the minimization problem of the Willmore energy among immersed surfaces of a given genus greater than 1 having the given curve as boundary, without any prescription on the conormal. By general lower bound estimates, in case the curve is a circle we prove that such problem is equivalent if restricted to embedded surfaces, we prove that do not exist minimizers, and we calculate the infimum. Then we study the case in which the genus is 1 and the competitors are restricted to a suitable class of varifolds including embedded surfaces, and we prove that the non-existence of minimizers implies a lower bound on the infimum; therefore we use such criterion in order to explicitly find an infinite family of curves for which such problem does have minimizers in the corresponding class of varifolds.