English

On the intrinsic geometry of a unit vector field

Differential Geometry 2007-05-23 v1

Abstract

We study the geometrical properties of a unit vector field on a Riemannian 2-manifold, considering the field as a local imbedding of the manifold into its tangent sphere bundle with the Sasaki metric. For the case of constant curvature K, we give a description of the totally geodesic unit vector fields for K=0 and K=1 and prove a non-existence result for K not equal to 0 and 1. We also found a family of vector fields on the hyperbolic 2-plane L^2 of curvature -c^2 which generate foliations on unit tangent bundle over L^2 with leaves of constant intrinsic curvature -c^2 and of constant extrinsic curvature -c^2/4.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.math/0503565,
  title  = {On the intrinsic geometry of a unit vector field},
  author = {Alexander Yampolsky},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:math/0503565},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

19 pages

R2 v1 2026-07-22T17:17:18.242Z