arXiv subjects

David Brander

Publications and source records attributed to David Brander.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Approximation and interactive design with exact 3D elastic curves

An elastic space curve is a critical point of the bending energy subject to appropriate constraints. An analytic representation, equivalent to the spherical pendulum equation, leads to an 11-parameter description of the space of 3D elastic curve segments. We give a numerically stable method for recovering the 11 parameters from a given elastic curve segment. Using this, we give a fast and stable method to approximate an arbitrary space curve segment by a 3D elastica. Applications include interactive design with exact elastic curves and CAD surface rationalization for robotic hot-blade cutting.

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arXiv2025

Tileable Surfaces

We study $C^1$-regular surfaces in $R^3$ that admit tilings by a finite number of rigid motion congruence classes of tiles. We construct examples with various topologies and present a framework for a systematic study, mainly concentrating on monotilings. A finite edge prototile is a tile that has only a finite number of possible interfaces with adjacent copies of itself. We describe all monotilings by such tiles with three or less edges. We consider the question of whether a monohedral polyhedron can be smoothed to become a finite edge type tileable surface with the same graph structure, and we give an example where this is not possible. Finally we list some open problems.

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arXiv2024

Gauss maps of M\"obius surfaces in the $n$-dimensional sphere

In this note we discuss Gauss maps for M\"obius surfaces in the $n$-sphere, and their applications in the study of Willmore surfaces. One such ``Gauss map'', naturally associated to a Willmore surface that has a dual Willmore surface, is the Lorentzian $2$-plane bundle given by a lift of the suface and its dual. More generally, we define the concept of a Lorentzian $2$-plane lift for an arbitrary M\"obius surface, and show that the conformal harmonicity of this lift is equivalent to the Willmore condition for the surface. This clarifies some previous work of F. H\'elein, Q. Xia-Y Shen, X. Ma and others, and, for instance, allows for the treatment of the Bj\"orling problem for Willmore surfaces in the presence of umbilics.

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arXiv2023

Maximal surfaces in the Lorentzian Heisenberg group

The 3-dimensional Heisenberg group can be equipped with three different types of left-invariant Lorentzian metric, according to whether the center of the Lie algebra is spacelike, timelike or null. Using the second of these types, we study spacelike surfaces of mean curvature zero. These surfaces with singularities are associated with harmonic maps into the 2-sphere. We show that the generic singularities are cuspidal edge, swallowtail and cuspidal cross-cap. We also give the loop group construction for these surfaces, and the criteria on the loop group potentials for the different generic singularities. Lastly, we solve the Cauchy problem for harmonic maps into the 2-sphere using loop groups, and use this to give a geometric characterization of the singularities. We use these results to prove that a regular spacelike maximal disc with null oundary must have at least two cuspidal cross-cap singularities on the boundary.

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arXiv2019

Wave maps and constant curvature surfaces: singularities and bifurcations

Wave maps (or Lorentzian-harmonic maps) from a $1+1$-dimensional Lorentz space into the $2$-sphere are associated to constant negative Gaussian curvature surfaces in Euclidean 3-space via the Gauss map, which is harmonic with respect to the metric induced by the second fundamental form. We give a method for constructing germs of Lorentzian-harmonic maps from their $k$-jets and use this construction to study the singularities of such maps. We also show how to construct pseudospherical surfaces with prescribed singularities using loop groups. We study the singularities of pseudospherical surfaces and obtain their bifurcations in generic 1-parameter families of such surfaces.

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arXiv2017

B\'ezier curves that are close to elastica

We study the problem of identifying those cubic B\'ezier curves that are close in the L2 norm to planar elastic curves. The problem arises in design situations where the manufacturing process produces elastic curves; these are difficult to work with in a digital environment. We seek a sub-class of special B\'ezier curves as a proxy. We identify an easily computable quantity, which we call the lambda-residual, that accurately predicts a small L2 distance. We then identify geometric criteria on the control polygon that guarantee that a B\'ezier curve has lambda-residual below 0.4, which effectively implies that the curve is within 1 percent of its arc-length to an elastic curve in the L2 norm. Finally we give two projection algorithms that take an input B\'ezier curve and adjust its length and shape, whilst keeping the end-points and end-tangent angles fixed, until it is close to an elastic curve.

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arXiv2017

Families of spherical surfaces and harmonic maps

We study singularities of constant positive Gaussian curvature surfaces and determine the way they bifurcate in generic 1-parameter families of such surfaces. We construct the bifurcations explicitly using loop group methods. Constant Gaussian curvature surfaces correspond to harmonic maps, and we examine the relationship between the two types of maps and their singularities. Finally, we determine which finitely A-determined map-germs from the plane to the plane can be represented by harmonic maps.

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arXiv2017

Monge surfaces and planar geodesic foliations

A Monge surface is a surface obtained by sweeping a generating plane curve along a trajectory that is orthogonal to the moving plane containing the curve. Locally, they are characterized as being foliated by a family of planar geodesic lines of curvature. We call surfaces with the latter property PGF surfaces, and investigate the global properties of these two naturally defined objects. The only compact orientable PGF surfaces are tori; these are globally Monge surfaces, and they have a simple characterization in terms of the directrix. We show how to produce many examples of Monge tori and Klein bottles, as well as tori that do not have a closed directrix.

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arXiv2016

Remarks on the boundary curve of a constant mean curvature topological disc

We discuss some consequences of the existence of the holomorphic quadratic Hopf differential on a conformally immersed constant mean curvature topological disc with analytic boundary. In particular, we derive a formula for the mean curvature as a weighted average of the normal curvature of the boundary curve, and a condition for the surface to be totally umbilic in terms of the normal curvature.

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arXiv2015

Approximation by planar elastic curves

We give an algorithm for approximating a given plane curve segment by a planar elastic curve. The method depends on an analytic representation of the space of elastic curve segments, together with a geometric method for obtaining a good initial guess for the approximating curve. A gradient-driven optimization is then used to find the approximating elastic curve.

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arXiv2015

Spherical Surfaces

We study surfaces of constant positive Gauss curvature in Euclidean 3-space via the harmonicity of the Gauss map. Using the loop group representation, we solve the regular and the singular geometric Cauchy problems for these surfaces, and use these solutions to compute several new examples. We give the criteria on the geometric Cauchy data for the generic singularities, as well as for the cuspidal beaks and cuspidal butterfly singularities. We consider the bifurcations of generic one parameter families of spherical fronts and provide evidence that suggests that these are the cuspidal beaks, cuspidal butterfly and one other singularity. We also give the loop group potentials for spherical surfaces with finite order rotational symmetries and for surfaces with embedded isolated singularities.

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arXiv2015

Pseudospherical surfaces with singularities

We study a generalization of constant Gauss curvature -1 surfaces in Euclidean 3-space, based on Lorentzian harmonic maps, that we call pseudospherical frontals. We analyze the singularities of these surfaces, dividing them into those of characteristic and non-characteristic type. We give methods for constructing all non-degenerate singularities of both types, as well as many degenerate singularities. We also give a method for solving the singular geometric Cauchy problem: construct a pseudospherical frontal containing a given regular space curve as a non-degenerate singular curve. The solution is unique for most curves, but for some curves there are infinitely many solutions, and this is encoded in the curvature and torsion of the curve.

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arXiv2014

On the Bj\"orling problem for Willmore surfaces

We solve the analogue of Bj\"orling's problem for Willmore surfaces via a harmonic map representation. For the umbilic-free case the problem and solution are as follows: given a real analytic curve $y_0$ in $S^3$, together with the prescription of the values of the surface normal and the dual Willmore surface along the curve, lifted to the light cone in Minkowski $5$-space $\mathbb{R}^5_1$, we prove, using isotropic harmonic maps, that there exists a unique pair of dual Willmore surfaces $y$ and $\hat y$ satisfying the given values along the curve. We give explicit formulae for the generalized Weierstrass data for the surface pair. For the three dimensional target, we use the solution to explicitly describe the Weierstrass data, in terms of geometric quantities, for all equivariant Willmore surfaces. For the case that the surface has umbilic points, we apply the more general half-isotropic harmonic maps introduced by H\'{e}lein to derive a solution: in this case the map $\hat y$ is not necessarily the dual surface, and the additional data of a derivative of $\hat y$ must be prescribed. This solution is generalized to higher codimensions.

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arXiv2013

Deformations of constant mean curvature surfaces preserving symmetries and the Hopf differential

We define certain deformations between minimal and non-minimal constant mean curvature (CMC) surfaces in Euclidean space $E^3$ which preserve the Hopf differential. We prove that, given a CMC $H$ surface $f$, either minimal or not, and a fixed basepoint $z_0$ on this surface, there is a naturally defined family $f_h$, for all real $h$, of CMC $h$ surfaces that are tangent to $f$ at $z_0$, and which have the same Hopf differential. Given the classical Weierstrass data for a minimal surface, we give an explicit formula for the generalized Weierstrass data for the non-minimal surfaces $f_h$, and vice versa. As an application, we use this to give a well-defined dressing action on the class of minimal surfaces. In addition, we show that symmetries of certain types associated with the basepoint are preserved under the deformation, and this gives a canonical choice of basepoint for surfaces with symmetries. We use this to define new examples of non-minimal CMC surfaces naturally associated to known minimal surfaces with symmetries.

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arXiv2013

Constant Gaussian curvature surfaces in the 3-sphere via loop groups

In this paper we study constant positive Gauss curvature $K$ surfaces in the 3-sphere $S^3$ with $0<K<1$ as well as constant negative curvature surfaces. We show that the so-called normal Gauss map for a surface in $S^3$ with Gauss curvature $K<1$ is Lorentz harmonic with respect to the metric induced by the second fundamental form if and only if $K$ is constant. We give a uniform loop group formulation for all such surfaces with $K\neq 0$, and use the generalized d'Alembert method to construct examples. This representation gives a natural correspondence between such surfaces with $K<0$ and those with $0<K<1$.

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arXiv2011

Timelike Constant Mean Curvature Surfaces with Singularities

We use integrable systems techniques to study the singularities of timelike non-minimal constant mean curvature (CMC) surfaces in the Lorentz-Minkowski 3-space. The singularities arise at the boundary of the Birkhoff big cell of the loop group involved. We examine the behaviour of the surfaces at the big cell boundary, generalize the definition of CMC surfaces to include those with finite, generic singularities, and show how to construct surfaces with prescribed singularities by solving a singular geometric Cauchy problem. The solution shows that the generic singularities of the generalized surfaces are cuspidal edges, swallowtails and cuspidal cross caps.

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arXiv2010

The Geometric Cauchy Problem for Surfaces With Lorentzian Harmonic Gauss maps

The geometric Cauchy problem for a class of surfaces in a pseudo-Riemannian manifold of dimension 3 is to find the surface which contains a given curve with a prescribed tangent bundle along the curve. We consider this problem for constant negative Gauss curvature surfaces (pseudospherical surfaces) in Euclidean 3-space, and for timelike constant non-zero mean curvature (CMC) surfaces in the Lorentz-Minkowski 3-space. We prove that there is a unique solution if the prescribed curve is non-characteristic, and for characteristic initial curves (asymptotic curves for pseudospherical surfaces and null curves for timelike CMC) it is necessary and sufficient for similar data to be prescribed along an additional characteristic curve that intersects the first. The proofs also give a means of constructing all solutions using loop group techniques. The method used is the infinite dimensional d'Alembert type representation for surfaces associated with Lorentzian harmonic maps (1-1 wave maps) into symmetric spaces, developed since the 1990's. Explicit formulae for the potentials in terms of the prescribed data are given, and some applications are considered.

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arXiv2010

Singularities of spacelike constant mean curvature surfaces in Lorentz-Minkowski space

We study singularities of spacelike, constant (non-zero) mean curvature (CMC) surfaces in the Lorentz-Minkowski 3-space $L^3$. We show how to solve the singular Björling problem for such surfaces, which is stated as follows: given a real analytic null-curve $f_0(x)$, and a real analytic null vector field $v(x)$ parallel to the tangent field of $f_0$, find a conformally parameterized (generalized) CMC $H$ surface in $L^3$ which contains this curve as a singular set and such that the partial derivatives $f_x$ and $f_y$ are given by $\frac{\dd f_0}{\dd x}$ and $v$ along the curve. Within the class of generalized surfaces considered, the solution is unique and we give a formula for the generalized Weierstrass data for this surface. This gives a framework for studying the singularities of non-maximal CMC surfaces in $L^3$. We use this to find the Björling data -- and holomorphic potentials -- which characterize cuspidal edge, swallowtail and cross cap singularities.

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