No Arabic abstract
Asymptotic net is an important concept in discrete differential geometry. In this paper, we show that we can associate affine discrete geometric concepts to an arbitrary non-degenerate asymptotic net. These concepts include discrete affine area, mean curvature, normal and co-normal vector fields and cubic form, and they are related by structural and compatibility equations. We consider also the particular cases of affine minimal surfaces and affine spheres.
We discuss discretization of Koenigs nets (conjugate nets with equal Laplace invariants) and of isothermic surfaces. Our discretization is based on the notion of dual quadrilaterals: two planar quadrilaterals are called dual, if their corresponding sides are parallel, and their non-corresponding diagonals are parallel. Discrete Koenigs nets are defined as nets with planar quadrilaterals admitting dual nets. Several novel geometric properties of discrete Koenigs nets are found; in particular, two-dimensional discrete Koenigs nets can be characterized by co-planarity of the intersection points of diagonals of elementary quadrilaterals adjacent to any vertex; this characterization is invariant with respect to projective transformations. Discrete isothermic nets are defined as circular Koenigs nets. This is a new geometric characterization of discrete isothermic surfaces introduced previously as circular nets with factorized cross-ratios.
We present a representation formula for discrete indefinite affine spheres via loop group factorizations. This formula is derived from the Birkhoff decomposition of loop groups associated with discrete indefinite affine spheres. In particular we show that a discrete indefinite improper affine sphere can be constructed from two discrete plane curves.
In this paper we are interested in defining affine structures on discrete quadrangular surfaces of the affine three-space. We introduce, in a constructive way, two classes of such surfaces, called respectively indefinite and definite surfaces. The underlying meshes for indefinite surfaces are asymptotic nets satisfying a non-degeneracy condition, while the underlying meshes for definite surfaces are non-degenerate conjugate nets satisfying a certain natural condition. In both cases we associate to any of these nets several discrete affine invariant quantities: a metric, a normal and a co-normal vector fields, and a mean curvature. Moreover, we derive structural and compatibility equations which are shown to be necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a discrete quadrangular surface with a given affine structure.
An affine manifold is said to be geodesically complete if all affine geodesics extend for all time. It is said to be affine Killing complete if the integral curves for any affine Killing vector field extend for all time. We use the solution space of the quasi-Einstein equation to examine these concepts in the setting of homogeneous affine surfaces.
The homogeneous affine surfaces have been classified by Opozda. They may be grouped into 3 families, which are not disjoint. The connections which arise as the Levi-Civita connection of a surface with a metric of constant Gauss curvature form one family; there are, however, two other families. For a surface in one of these other two families, we examine the Lie algebra of affine Killing vector fields and we give a complete classification of the homogeneous affine gradient Ricci solitons. The rank of the Ricci tensor plays a central role in our analysis.