Conformal theory of curves with tractors
Differential Geometry
2018-05-02 v1
Abstract
We present the general theory of curves in conformal geometry using tractor calculus. This primarily involves a tractorial determination of distinguished parametrizations and relative and absolute conformal invariants of generic curves. The absolute conformal invariants are defined via a tractor analogue of the classical Frenet frame construction and then expressed in terms of relative ones. This approach applies likewise to conformal structures of any signature; in the case of indefinite signature we focus especially on the null curves. It also provides a conceptual tool for handling distinguished families of curves (conformal circles and conformal null helices) and conserved quantities along them.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1805.00422,
title = {Conformal theory of curves with tractors},
author = {Josef Šilhan and Vojtěch Žádník},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1805.00422},
year = {2018}
}
Comments
23 pages