All Questions
14 questions
70
votes
4
answers
11k
views
$C^1$ isometric embedding of flat torus into $\mathbb{R}^3$
I read (in a paper by Emil Saucan) that the flat torus may be isometrically embedded
in $\mathbb{R}^3$ with a $C^1$ map by the Kuiper extension of the Nash Embedding Theorem,
a claim repeated in this ...
- 151k
64
votes
6
answers
5k
views
Shortest closed curve to inspect a sphere
Let $S$ be a sphere in $\mathbb{R}^3$. Let $C$ be a closed curve in $\mathbb{R}^3$ disjoint from and
exterior to $S$
which has the property that every point $x$ on $S$ is visible to some point $y$ of $...
- 151k
36
votes
10
answers
6k
views
Determining a surface in $\mathbb{R}^3$ by its Gaussian curvature
A curve in the plane is determined, up to orientation-preserving
Euclidean
motions, by its curvature function, $\kappa(s)$.
Here is one of my favorite examples, from
Alfred Gray's book,
Modern ...
- 151k
28
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Probing a manifold with geodesics
Supposed you stand at a point $p \in M$ on a smooth 2-manifold $M$
embedded in $\mathbb{R}^3$.
You do not know anything about $M$.
You shoot off a geodesic $\gamma$ in some direction $u$,
and learn ...
- 151k
15
votes
3
answers
4k
views
About MF Atiyah and R Bott's 1983 paper
I am a theoretical physics major student working on string theory. I want to understand the work of MF Atiyah and R Bott, "The Yang-Mills equations over riemann surfaces" . What kinds of mathematical ...
- 395
26
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Why is the half-torus rigid?
The half-torus surface that results from slicing a torus like a bagel,
depicted below (left), is isometrically rigid.
I know this from a remark of Alexandrov in
Mathematics: Its ...
- 151k
24
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Non-regular Connected Hausdorff Banach Manifold
After reading this MO post, I am wondering:
Is every (connected) Hausdorff Banach manifold a regular space?
Though unjustified, page 53 of this paper nonchalantly states: "Note that a Hausdorff ...
- 7,831
24
votes
5
answers
4k
views
Weitzenböck Identities
I asked this question at Maths Stack Exchange, but I haven't received any replies yet (I'm not sure how long I should wait before it is acceptable to ask here, assuming there is such a period of time)....
- 19.3k
16
votes
2
answers
2k
views
There are two points on the Earth's surface that ... ?
At every moment in time, there are two points on the Earth's surface that have the same $\lbrace x, y, z, ... \rbrace$...?
What is the strongest, most impressive statement one can make here? The ...
- 151k
14
votes
4
answers
963
views
Steiner's inequality reference request
I remember seeing somewhere that for every connected compact set $\Omega$ in $\mathbb{R}^2$ with piecewise $C^1$ boundary we have
$$A(\Omega_r)\leq A(\Omega)+L(\partial \Omega)r+ \pi r^2,$$
where
$$\...
- 295
9
votes
1
answer
3k
views
Oloid and sphericon: rolling develops entire surface
Wikipedia says that,
"The oloid is one of the only known objects, along with some members of the sphericon family, that while rolling, develops its entire surface."
Below are illustrations of ...
- 151k
7
votes
2
answers
358
views
Cone unfolding of space curves
There is a natural length-preserving operation which transforms any rectifiable space curve $\gamma\colon [a,b]\to R^n$ into a planar curve $\tilde\gamma \colon [a,b]\to R^2$. This operation, which ...
- 7,149
5
votes
0
answers
1k
views
"The famous Lusternik-Schnirelmann Theorem of the Three Closed Geodesics"
The title is a quote from p.256 of Wilhelm Klingenberg's 1995
Riemannian Geometry (Google Books link):
Every surface homeomorphic to a sphere $\mathbb{S}^2$ has three distinct, simple, closed ...
- 151k
3
votes
1
answer
704
views
Bishop-Gromov volume comparison on manifolds with negligible negative Ricci curvature
Let us consider a complete Riemannian manifold $M$ of dimension $n$ with $Ric \geq 0$. Then the Bishop-Gromov volume comparison theorem says that for any $p \in M$, the function
$$ \frac{\text{Vol}(B(...
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