Questions tagged [isometries]
The isometries tag has no usage guidance.
106 questions
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Isometric embedding of SO(3) into an euclidean space
Consider $SO(3)$ with its bi-invariant metric and $R^n$ the euclidean space of dimension $n$. What is the minimal value of $n$ such that there exists an isometric embedding $f: SO(3) \to R^n$?
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Under what conditions $\|x-y\|=n\iff\|f(x)-f(y)\|=n.$ for $n\in\mathbf{N}$ implies isometry?
Let $X, Y$ be normed space and $f:X\to Y$ be a mapping. Assume that for all $n\in\mathbf{N}$, $$\|x-y\|=n\iff\|f(x)-f(y)\|=n.$$
Under what conditions this map will be an isometry?
Thanks
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A differentiable isometry is smooth?
I posted this question in MSE but got no response (even after giving a bounty), so I am trying here.
Let $M,N$ be smooth $d$-dimensional Riemannian manifolds.
Suppose $f:M \to N$ is a differentiable ...
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If all balls at $x$ and $y$ are isometric is there an isometry sending $x$ to $y$?
Let $(X,d)$ be a metric space and $x,y \in X$. Assume that for all $r > 0$ the balls $B_r(x)$ and $B_r(y)$ are isometric.
Is it true that there exists an isometry of $X$ sending $x$ to $y$?
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2
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Repeated random two-steps in $\mathbb{R}^3$: unbounded?
I created a random isometry $T$ of $\mathbb{R}^3$ by generating
a random orthogonal matrix $M$,
uniformly distributed among all such,
and a random displacement $v$, whose coordinates
are drawn from a ...
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18
votes
1
answer
980
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Possible isometries of a positively curved $S^2\times S^2$
Just to put things in perspective, recall that the Hopf Conjecture asks whether $S^2\times S^2$ admits a metric of positive sectional curvature. By the work of Hsiang-Kleiner, it is known that, if $S^...
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Are there some intrinsic invariants of surfaces other than Gaussian curvature?
The principal curvatures of a surface is denoted by $\kappa_{1}, \kappa_{2}$.
Let $P(x,y)$ be a polynomial with real coefficients. Assume that $P(\kappa_{1}, \kappa_{2})$ is an intrinsically ...
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Which metric spaces have this superposition property?
Let $A \subset X$ and $B \subset X$ be two isometric subsets of a metric space $X$. So there is an isometry $f: A \to B$.
Say that a metric space $X$ has the superposition property (my terminology) ...
- 151k
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2
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Tweetable way to see Riemannian isometries are harmonic?
$\newcommand{\al}{\alpha}$
$\newcommand{\euc}{\mathcal{e}}$
$\newcommand{\Cof}{\operatorname{Cof}}$
$\newcommand{\Det}{\operatorname{Det}}$
Smooth Riemannian isometries are harmonic. Can one conclude ...
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If all balls around two points are isometric... -- manifold version
This question is a natural follow-up of this other question, asked earlier today by wspin.
Let's say that a metric space $(X,d)$ has two poles if:
there are two distinct points $x$, $y$ such that ...
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answer
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Uniform distribution of points on Riemannian manifolds
Recently, I came across a beautiful paper by Arnol'd and Krylov (Uniform distribution of points on a sphere...) that contains the following theorem:
Theorem: Let A and B be two rotations of the ...
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Do curvature differences obstruct a.e orientation-preserving isometries?
Is there an example of a pair $M,N$ of connected, oriented equidimensional Riemannian manifolds with the following properties:
$M$ is everywhere non-flat, $N$ is flat.
There exist a map $f:M \to N$ ...
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14
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What are the applications of the Mazur-Ulam Theorem?
Every bijective isometry between normed spaces is affine. This well-known and beautiful statement, the Mazur-Ulam Theorem, was proved in 1932, but the proof has been simplified and polished in years, ...
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Isometry group of a compact hyperbolic surface
Consider a compact surface $M$ of genus $g \geq 2$ with a metric of constant negative curvature. My question is, is it known under what sorts of sufficient conditions such a metric will have non-...
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Is there a global obstruction for a diffeomorphism to be an isometry?
Let $V$ be a finite dimensional vector space.
Let us call an automorphism $T:V\rightarrow V$ admissible if there exists an inner product $\langle , \rangle$ on $V$ making $T$ an isometry.
We know $T$...
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Isometries of some simple Cayley graphs
Consider a Cayley graph of a group $G$ with respect to a symmetric finite generating set $S$.
There are some obvious candidates to isometries of this graph - for example, translation by elements of $G$...
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Isometry group of pseudo Riemannian manifold always a Lie group? (Myers-Steenrod)
Myers-Steenrod states that the isometry group of a Riemannian manifold is a Lie group. Is that also true for pseudo Riemannian manifolds? I didn't find anything related to that.
Cheers
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What is an example of two Banach spaces $X,Y$ such that $X$ embeds isometrically but not linearly into $Y$?
By a result of Godefroy and Kalton if $X,Y$ are separable Banach spaces and $X$ embeds isometrically into $Y$, then $X$ embeds with a linear isometry into $Y$.
Is this result known to fail for ...
11
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About Palais' remark that an isometry of Riemannian manifolds does not induce an isometry of the Hilbert manifolds of curves
In the paper ``Morse theory on Hilbert manifolds'' (1963), on page
326, Richard Palais makes a remark that if $\phi\colon V \to W$ is an
isometry (of submanifolds of $\mathbb{R}^n$), then this does ...
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Palais's and Kobayashi's theorems on automorphism groups of geometric structures
My question concerns two results in the neighborhood of the standard theorem of Myers-Steenrod that isometry groups of Riemannian manifolds are Lie groups. Both appear in the first chapter of ...
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When is a continous $\epsilon$-isometry of the sphere surjective?
Equip $\mathbb S^n$ with the standard round metric. Let $f : \mathbb S^n \to \mathbb S^n$ be a continous map satisfying $\vert d(f(x),f(y)) - d(x,y)\vert \leq \epsilon$.
Is $f$ is surjective for all ...
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Can a knotted sphere isometrically embed into $\mathbb R^3$?
All smooth simple closed curves in $\mathbb R^3$ (knotted or not) can be isometrically embedded into $\mathbb R^2$ as a circle of equal arclength.
The situation for knotted spheres seems more ...
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There is no arcwise isometry from a high dimensional manifold into a low dimensional manifold
$\newcommand{\al}{\alpha}$
$\newcommand{\ga}{\gamma}$
$\newcommand{\e}{\epsilon}$
Let $X,Y$ be Riemannian manifolds, such that $\dim(X) > \dim(Y)$.
I am trying to prove the following statement (...
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Under what conditions a linear automorphism is an isometry of some norm?
Assume $V$ is a finite-dimensional vector space over $\mathbb{R}$, and $T: V \to V$ is a (linear) isomorphism.
When is it possible to construct a norm on $V$
making $T$ an isometry?
(Hopefully,...
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3
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Realizing mapping classes as isometries?
Let $\phi : M \to M$ be a diffeomorphism. Is there a metric $g$ on $M$ and a diffeomorphism $\psi$ isotopic to $\phi$ so that $\psi$ is an isometry with respect to $g$? I'm guessing the answer is no,...
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If $E\oplus_\phi E \cong E\oplus_\psi E,$ does it imply that $\phi= \psi$?
Let $E\neq \{0\}$ be a Banach space.
For each $p\in[1,\infty), $ we define
$$E\oplus_p E = \{(x,y): x\in E, y\in E, \|(x,y)\| = \sqrt[p]{\|x\|^p + \|y\|^p}\}.$$
Let $F$ be another Banach space.
By $E\...
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Gromov-Hausdorff convergence for non-compact metric spaces
Let $(X_i,p_i)$, $(X,p)$ be pointed connected proper metric spaces (i.e. the closures of balls are compact). Are the following two statements equivalent?
$\forall r > 0: \bar{B}_r(p_i) \stackrel{...
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Does nonexpanding map between manifolds decrease volume?
(This question is a special case of a question I asked at SE, which got no answer there)
Let $M,N$ be diffeomorphic connected compact Riemannian manifolds, and let $f:M \to N$ be a surjective ...
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The surjectivity of the exponential map for the isometry group
Little is known on general conditions guaranteeing that the exponential map between a Lie algebra and an associated Lie group is surjective.
Let $M$ be a noncompact connected Riemann manifold, and $G$...
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Are polyhedra with equilateral triangular faces rigid?
Convex polyhedra are rigid by Cauchy’s theorem. Steffen’s polyhedron is an example of a non-convex polyhedron that is flexible (i.e., non-rigid). However, it appears to have edges of different lengths....
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Open problems about CMC hypersurfaces with symmetries?
Recently, Andrews and Li announced a complete classification of CMC ($H=const.$) tori in $S^3$, confirming a conjecture of Pinkall and Sterling. Their main result is that any such torus is ...
- 5,891
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1
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Are metric isometries smooth at the boundary?
Let $M,N$ be smooth Riemannian manifolds with boundary (In particular, we assume the boundaries are smooth).
Suppose we have a map $\phi:M \to N$ which satisfies the following properties:
$$(1) \, \,...
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Can a closed disc in the plane be partitioned into three disjoint sets which are pair-wise isometric?
Any progress on the following: Can a closed disc in the plane be partitioned into three disjoint sets which are pair-wise isometric, i.e. each set is an image of the others under an isometry?
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Homometric $\Rightarrow$ isometric?
Suppose you know that there is a mapping between
two Riemmanian manifolds $M_1$ and $M_2$ such that,
for each $x_1 \in M_1$, the (codimension-1) measure of the set of points
at distance $d$ from $x_1$ ...
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1
answer
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When do 0-preserving isometries have to be linear?
Let $\langle \mathbf{V},+,\cdot,||.|| \rangle$ be a normed vector space over $\mathbb{R}$.
Let $f : \mathbf{V} \to \mathbf{V}$ be an isometry that satisfies $f(\mathbf{0}) = \mathbf{0}$ .
What ...
user5810
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Terminology: "cocompact"
Let $M$ be a Riemannian manifold such that its isometry group $G=\textrm{Iso}(M)$ is a Lie group, and let $\Gamma$ be a subgroup of $G$.
1) What does the phrase "$\Gamma$ is a cocompact group of ...
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Laplace-Beltrami and the isometry group
H$\vphantom{a}$i. Consider the Laplacian on $\mathbb R^n$,
$$
\Delta=\partial_i^2
$$
It is easy to prove that the most general differential operator that commutes with rotations and translations is ...
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Norms on $\mathbb{R}^d$ whose linear isometries are the hypercube group
It is a known fact that for any $2\neq p\in[1,\infty]$, the linear isometries for the corresponding norm $\|\cdot\|_p$ on $\mathbb{R}^d$ is the set of all square-matrices with entries in $\{-1,1,0\}$, ...
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Are the Sasaki metrics on tangent and cotangent bundle isomorphic?
Let $(M,g)$ be a Riemannian manifold. Then there is the well-known
Sasaki metric that makes $(TM,\hat{g})$ a Riemannian manifold. In a
similar way, one can construct a Sasaki metric $\bar{g}$ on the
...
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1
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Must a surjective isometry on a dual space have a pre-adjoint?
Background: Let $X$ be a Banach space. We know a linear map $h$ is a surjective isometry of $X$ if and only if its adjoint $h^*$ is a surjective isometry of $X^*$.
In general, a linear map $g:X^* \...
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Does the isometry group determine the Riemannian metric?
Suppose $G \subset \text{Iso}(M)$ is a Lie group acting smoothly on a (pseudo-)Riemannian manifold $(M, g)$. Then $G$ induces a Lie algebra of Killing vectors on $M$. In this paper by Goenner and ...
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Products of elliptic isometries
A well-known property on groups acting on trees is:
Theorem: Let $T$ be a tree and $g,h \in \mathrm{Isom}(T)$ two elliptic isometries. If $\mathrm{Fix}(g) \cap \mathrm{Fix}(h) = \emptyset$ then the ...
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Cohn-Vossen rigidity theorem in hyperbolic space
There is the following rigidity theorem of Cohn-Vossen as stated on p. 86 of these lecture notes: http://www.math.brown.edu/~deigen/chern.pdf
Any isometry between two closed smooth convex surfaces in ...
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Are all symmetries of the Dirichlet functional isometries?
This is a cross-post from MSE (no answer there).
Let $M,N$ be oriented $d$-dimensional Riemannian manifolds, $M$ compact*, and let $f:M \to N$ be smooth.
Consider the Dirichlet energy functional: $...
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What is the minimum $n$ for which $\Bbb H^3$ can be isometrically embedded in $\Bbb R^n$ as a bounded set?
Consider the hyperbolic $3$-space $\Bbb H^3$ (i.e., the unique, simply-connected, $3$-dimensional complete Riemannian manifold with a constant negative sectional curvature equal to $-1$). The Nash ...
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Isometries of Compact Semisimple Lie Groups
In this delightful question, the poster mentioned that the isometry group of a compact Lie group $G$, equipped with the metric from the Killing form, is $G\times G/Z(G)$, where $Z(G)$ is the center of ...
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Testing for Riemannian isometry
In most physics situations one gets the metric as a positive definite symmetric matrix in some chosen local coordinate system.
Now if on the same space one has two such metrics given as matrices then ...
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Isometric embeddings of metric spaces in Hilbert spaces
There are plenty of isometric embeddings of metric spaces in Banach spaces. Nevertheless, I have been unable to find any significant result on isometric embeddings into Hilbert spaces. My question is: ...
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All-set-homogeneous spaces
This is a follow-up to the question of Joseph O'Rourke Which metric spaces have this superposition property?
A metric space $X$ will be called all-set-homogeneous if for any subset $A\subset X$ any ...
- 45k
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Doubly-stochastic partial-isometric matrices
An $n\times n$ matrix $A$ with nonegative real entries $a_{ij}$ is said to be doubly stochastic if $\sum_{i=1}^na_{ij} = 1$,
for all $j$, and $\sum_{j=1}^na_{ij}=1$, for all $i$.
Much is known [1] ...
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