Differential Geometry of the Focal Set

Author(s)

Samuel Paulino dos Santos

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São José do Rio Preto. 2018-02-23.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp). Instituto de Biociências Letras e Ciências Exatas. São José do Rio Preto
• Defense date: 2018-02-08
• Advisor: Luciana de Fátima Martins

Abstract

Let S be a immersed surface in R3 without parabolic points. The focal set of S is the locus of the centres of spheres that have a degenerate contact with S in each point. This contact is measured by singularities of the family of distance squared function D associated with S. The focal set is a surface, but is not necessarily regular, and it can also be seen as the bifurcation set of the family D. The approach of associating a singular variety X(S) to a smooth submanifold S in an Euclidian space and recover some aspects of the geometry of S from that of X(S) is at the essence of applications of singularity theory to the Differential Geometry. In this work, we study models, unless diffeomorphism, of focal set of the immersed generics surfaces in R3. We have also gathered some results about the geometry of the focal set of the literature and we present them in a more explanatory way and in a modern notation. Furthermore, we show that the focal surface can be parametrized by a wave front and use the known results of such applications in the study of the focal set. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 16/21226-5 - Differential geometry of the focal set
• Grantee: Samuel Paulino dos Santos
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master