Theta Surfaces

A theta surface in affine 3-space is the zero set of a Riemann theta function in genus 3. This includes surfaces arising from special plane quartics that are singular or reducible. Lie and Poincaré showed that any analytic surface that is the Minkowski sum of two space curves in two different ways is a theta surface. The four space curves that generate such a double translation structure are parametrized by abelian integrals, so they are usually not algebraic. This paper offers a new view on this classical topic through the lens of computation. We present practical tools for passing between quartic curves and their theta surfaces, and we develop the numerical algebraic geometry of degenerations of theta functions.

Null helices and Cartan slant helices in Lorentz–Minkowski 3-space

In this paper, we study null helices, Cartan slant helices and two special developable surfaces associated to them in Lorentz–Minkowski 3-space. We give a method using a special plane curve to construct a null helix. We also define the null tangential Darboux developable of a null Cartan curve, and we give a classification of singularities of it. Moreover, we study the relationship between null helices (or Cartan slant helices) with the developable surfaces of them.

Branch Reconfiguration of Bricard Linkages Based on Toroids Intersections: Plane-Symmetric Case

This paper for the first time reveals a set of special plane-symmetric Bricard linkages with various branches of reconfiguration by means of intersection of two generating toroids, and presents a complete theory of the branch reconfiguration of the Bricard plane-symmetric linkages. An analysis of the intersection of these two toroids reveals the presence of coincident conical singularities, which lead to design of the plane-symmetric linkages that evolve to spherical 4R linkages. By examining the tangents to the curves of intersection at the conical singularities, it is found that the linkage can be reconfigured between the two possible branches of spherical 4R motion without disassembling it and without requiring the usual special configuration connecting the branches. The study of tangent intersections between concentric singular toroids also reveals the presence of isolated points in the intersection, which suggests that some linkages satisfying the Bricard plane-symmetry conditions are actually structures with zero finite degrees-of-freedom (DOF) but with higher instantaneous mobility. This paper is the second part of a paper published in parallel by the authors in which the method is applied to the line-symmetric case.