Hyperbolic Carath\'{e}odory conjecture
Abstract
A quadratic point on a surface in is a point at which the surface can be approximated by a quadric abnormally well (up to order 3). We conjecture that the least number of quadratic points on a generic compact non-degenerate hyperbolic surface is 8; the relation between this and the classic Carath\'{e}odory conjecture is similar to the relation between the six-vertex and the four-vertex theorems on plane curves. Examples of quartic perturbations of the standard hyperboloid confirm our conjecture. Our main result is a linearization and reformulation of the problem in the framework of 2-dimensional Sturm theory; we also define a signature of a quadratic point and calculate local normal forms recovering and generalizing Tresse-Wilczynski's theorem.
Cite
@article{arxiv.math/0611630,
title = {Hyperbolic Carath\'{e}odory conjecture},
author = {Valentin Ovsienko and Serge Tabachnikov},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:math/0611630},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
Latex 25 pages, 10 figures