English

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}
}

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23 pages