arXiv subjects

Serge Tabachnikov

Publications and source records attributed to Serge Tabachnikov.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

Descartes Circle Theorem, Steiner Porism, and Spherical Designs

A Steiner chain of length k consists of k circles, tangent to two given non-intersecting circles (the parent circles) and tangent to each other in a cyclic pattern. The Steiner porism states that once a chain of k circles exists, there exists a 1-parameter family of such chains with the same parent circles that can be constructed starting with any initial circle, tangent to the parent circles. What do the circles in these 1-parameter family of Steiner chains of length k have in common? We prove that the first k-1 moments of their curvatures remain constant within a 1-parameter family. For k=3, this follows from the Descartes Circle Theorem. We extend our result to Steiner chains in the spherical and hyperbolic geometries and present a related more general theorem involving spherical designs.

math.MG↗

arXiv2018

On centro-affine curves and Backlund transformations of the KdV equation

We continue the study of the Korteweg-de Vries equation in terms of cento-affine curves, initiated by U. Pinkall. A centro-affine curve is a closed parametric curve in the affine plane such that the determinant made by the position and the velocity vectors is identically 1. The space of centro-affine curves is acted upon by the special linear group, and the quotient is identified with the space of Hill's equations with periodic solutions. It is known that the space of centro-affine curves carries two pre-symplectic structures, and the KdV flow is identified with is a bi-Hamiltonian dynamical system therein. We introduce a 1-parameter family of transformations on centro-affine curves, prove that they preserve both presymplectic structures, commute with the KdV flow, and share the integrals with it. Furthermore, the transformation commute with each other (Bianchi permutability). We also describe integrals of the KdV equation as arising from the monodromy of Riccati equations associated with centro-affine curves. We are motivated by our work in progress (joint with M. Arnold, D. Fuchs, and I. Izmenstiev), concerning the cross-ratio dynamics on ideal polygons in the hyperbolic plane and hyperbolic space, whose continuous version is studied in the present note.

math.DS↗

arXiv2018

A four vertex theorem for frieze patterns?

Given two Coxeter's frieze patterns with the same width and consisting of positive numbers, choose a row and consider the periodic sequence of the differences of the respective entries of the two friezes. We ask for which rows this sequence must change sign at least four times over the period. We prove that this is the case for the first and for the second non-trivial rows, and that this is true, for all rows, for an infinitesimal version of the question. The article also contains expository material on the four vertex theorem and on Coxeter's frieze patterns.

math.MG↗

arXiv2017

Introducing symplectic billiards

In this article we introduce a simple dynamical system called symplectic billiards. As opposed to usual/Birkhoff billiards, where length is the generating function, for symplectic billiards symplectic area is the generating function. We explore basic properties and exhibit several similarities, but also differences of symplectic billiards to Birkhoff billiards.

math.DS↗

arXiv2017

Kasner meets Poncelet

Given a planar pentagon, construct two new pentagons: the vertices of the first one are the intersection points of the diagonals of the original pentagon, and the vertices of the second one are the tangency points of the conic inscribed in the original pentagon. E. Kasner theorem, published in 1928, asserts that these two operations on pentagons commute. We extend Kasner's result to Poncelet polygons, that is, the polygons inscribed into a conic and circumscribed about a conic.

math.MG↗

arXiv2017

Dual numbers, weighted quivers, and extended Somos and Gale-Robinson sequences

We investigate a general method that allows one to construct new integer sequences extending existing ones. We apply this method to the classic Somos-4 and Somos-5, and the Gale-Robinson sequences, as well as to more general class of sequences introduced by Fordy and Marsh, and produce a great number of new sequences. The method is based on the notion of "weighted quiver", a quiver with a $\mathbb Z$-valued function on the set of vertices that obeys very special rules of mutation.

math.CO↗

arXiv2017

Iterating evolutes of spatial polygons and of spatial curves

The evolute of a smooth curve in an m-dimensional Euclidean space is the locus of centers of its osculating spheres, and the evolute of a spatial polygon is the polygon whose consecutive vertices are the centers of the spheres through the consecutive (m+1)-tuples of vertices of the original polygon. We study the iterations of these evolute transformations. This work continues the recent study of similar problems in dimension two, see arXiv:1510.07742. Here is a sampler of our results. The set of n-gons with fixed directions of the sides, considered up to parallel translation, is an (n-m)-dimensional vector space, and the second evolute transformation is a linear map of this space. If n=m+2, then the second evolute is homothetic to the original polygon, and if n=m+3, then the first and the third evolutes are homothetic. In general, each eigenvalue of the second evolute map has double multiplicity. We also study curves, with cusps, in 3-dimensional Euclidean space and their evolutes. We provide continuous analogs of the results obtained for polygons, and present a class of curves which are homothetic to their second evolutes; these curves are spatial analogs of the classical hypocycloids.

math.DG↗

arXiv2016

Ivory's Theorem revisited

Ivory's Lemma is a geometrical statement in the heart of J. Ivory's calculation of the gravitational potential of a homeoidal shell. In the simplest planar case, it claims that the diagonals of a curvilinear quadrilateral made by arcs of confocal ellipses and hyperbolas are equal. In the first part of this paper, we deduce Ivory's Lemma and its numerous generalizations from complete integrability of billiards on conics and quadrics. In the second part, we study analogs of Ivory's Lemma in Liouville and Stäckel metrics. Our main focus is on the results of the German school of differential geometry obtained in the late 19 -- early 20th centuries that might be lesser know today. In the third part, we generalize Newton's, Laplace's, and Ivory's theorems on gravitational and Coulomb potential of spheres and ellipsoids to the spherical and hyperbolic spaces. V. Arnold extended the results of Newton, Laplace, and Ivory to algebraic hypersurfaces in Euclidean space; we generalize Arnold's theorem to the spaces of constant curvature.

math.DS↗

arXiv2016

On the bicycle transformation and the filament equation: results and conjectures

The paper concerns a simple model of bicycle kinematics: a bicycle is represented by an oriented segment of constant length in n-dimensional space that can move in such a way that the velocity of its rear end is aligned with the segment (the rear wheel is fixed on the bicycle frame). Starting with a closed trajectory of the rear end, one obtains the two respective trajectories of the front end, corresponding to the opposite directions of motion. These two curves are said to be in the bicycle correspondence. Conjecturally, this correspondence is completely integrable; we present a number of results substantiating this conjecture. In dimension three, the bicycle correspondence is the Backlund transformation for the filament equation; we discuss bi-Hamiltonian features of the bicycle correspondence and its integrals.

math.DS↗

arXiv2015

Skewers

The skewer of a pair of skew lines in space is their common perpendicular. To configuration theorems of plane projective geometry involving points and lines (such as Pappus or Desargues) there correspond configuration theorems in space: points and lines in the plane are replaced by lines is space, the incidence between a line and a point translates as the intersection of two lines at right angle, and the operations of connecting two points by a line or by intersecting two lines at a point translate as taking the skewer of two lines. These configuration theorems hold in elliptic, Euclidean, and hyperbolic geometries. This correspondence principle extends to plane configuration theorems involving polarity. For example, the theorem that the three altitudes of a triangle are concurrent corresponds to the Petersen-Morley theorem that the common normals of the opposite sides of a space right-angled hexagon have a common normal. We define analogs of plane circles (they are 2-parameter families of lines in space) and extend the correspondence principle to plane theorems involving circles. We also discuss the skewer versions of the Sylvester problem: given a finite collection of pairwise skew lines such that the skewer of any pair intersects at least one other line at right angle, do all the line have to share a skewer? The answer is positive in the elliptic and Euclidean geometries, but negative in the hyperbolic one.

math.MG↗

arXiv2015

Introducing supersymmetric frieze patterns and linear difference operators

We introduce a supersymmetric analog of the classical Coxeter frieze patterns. Our approach is based on the relation with linear difference operators. We define supersymmetric analogs of linear difference operators called Hill's operators. The space of these "superfriezes" is an algebraic supervariety, which is isomorphic to the space of supersymmetric second order difference equations, called Hill's equations.

math.RA↗

arXiv2014

Integrable cluster dynamics of directed networks and pentagram maps

The pentagram map was introduced by R. Schwartz more than 20 years ago. In 2009, V. Ovsienko, R. Schwartz and S. Tabachnikov established Liouville complete integrability of this discrete dynamical system. In 2011, M. Glick interpreted the pentagram map as a sequence of cluster transformations associated with a special quiver. Using compatible Poisson structures in cluster algebras and Poisson geometry of directed networks on surfaces, we generalize Glick's construction to include the pentagram map into a family of discrete integrable maps and we give these maps geometric interpretations. This paper expands on our research announcement arXiv:1110.0472

math.DS↗

arXiv2014

$SL_2(\mathbb{Z})$-tilings of the torus, Coxeter-Conway friezes and Farey triangulations

The notion of $SL_2$-tiling is a generalization of that of classical Coxeter-Conway frieze pattern. We classify doubly antiperiodic $SL_2$-tilings that contain a rectangular domain of positive integers. Every such $SL_2$-tiling corresponds to a pair of frieze patterns and a unimodular $2\times2$-matrix with positive integer coefficients. We relate this notion to triangulated $n$-gons in the Farey graph.

math.CO↗

arXiv2014

The Six Circles Theorem revisited

The Six Circles Theorem of C. Evelyn, G. Money-Coutts, and J. Tyrrell concerns chains of circles inscribed into a triangle: the first circle is inscribed in the first angle, the second circle is inscribed in the second angle and tangent to the first circle, the third circle is inscribed in the third angle and tangent to the second circle, and so on, cyclically. The theorem asserts that if all the circles touch the sides of the triangle, and not their extensions, then the chain is 6-periodic. We show that, in general, the chain is eventually 6-periodic but may have an arbitrarily long pre-period.

math.MG↗

arXiv2014

Coxeter's frieze patterns and discretization of the Virasoro orbit

We show that the space of classical Coxeter's frieze patterns can be viewed as a discrete version of a coadjoint orbit of the Virasoro algebra. The canonical (cluster) (pre)symplectic form on the space of frieze patterns is a discretization of the Kirillov symplectic form. We relate a continuous version of frieze patterns to conformal metrics of constant curvature in dimension 2.

math.SG↗

arXiv2013

On curves and polygons with the equiangular chord property

Let $C$ be a smooth, convex curve on either the sphere $\mathbb{S}^{2}$, the hyperbolic plane $\mathbb{H}^{2}$ or the Euclidean plane $\mathbb{E}^{2}$, with the following property: there exists $α$, and parameterizations $x(t), y(t)$ of $C$ such that for each $t$, the angle between the chord connecting $x(t)$ to $y(t)$ and $C$ is $α$ at both ends. Assuming that $C$ is not a circle, E. Gutkin completely characterized the angles $α$ for which such a curve exists in the Euclidean case. We study the infinitesimal version of this problem in the context of the other two constant curvature geometries, and in particular we provide a complete characterization of the angles $α$ for which there exists a non-trivial infinitesimal deformation of a circle through such curves with corresponding angle $α$. We also consider a discrete version of this property for Euclidean polygons, and in this case we give a complete description of all non-trivial solutions.

math.DG↗

arXiv2013

Linear difference equations, frieze patterns and combinatorial Gale transform

We study the space of linear difference equations with periodic coefficients and (anti)periodic solutions. We show that this space is isomorphic to the space of tame frieze patterns and closely related to the moduli space of configurations of points in the projective space. We define the notion of combinatorial Gale transform which is a duality between periodic difference equations of different orders. We describe periodic rational maps generalizing the classical Gauss map.

math.CO↗

arXiv2013

Circumcenter of Mass and generalized Euler line

We define and study a variant of the center of mass of a polygon and, more generally, of a simplicial polytope which we call the Circumcenter of Mass (CCM). The Circumcenter of Mass is an affine combination of the circumcenters of the simplices in a triangulation of a polytope, weighted by their volumes. For an inscribed polytope, CCM coincides with the circumcenter. Our motivation comes from the study of completely integrable discrete dynamical systems, where the CCM is an invariant of the discrete bicycle (Darboux) transformation and of recuttings of polygons. We show that the CCM satisfies an analog of Archimedes' Lemma, a familiar property of the center of mass. We define and study a generalized Euler line associated to any simplicial polytope, extending the previously studied Euler line associated to the quadrilateral. We show that the generalized Euler line for polygons consists of all centers satisfying natural continuity and homogeneity assumptions and Archimedes' Lemma. Finally, we show that CCM can also be defined in the spherical and hyperbolic settings.

math.MG↗