Related papers: On the writhe of non-closed curves

We study the variation of the Tait number of a closed space curve according to its different projections. The results are used to compute the writhe of a knot, leading to a closed formula in case of polygonal curves.

We give necessary and sufficient conditions on the curvature and the torsion of a regular curve of the space forms $\h^3$ and $\s^3$ to be contained in a totally umbilical surface. In case that the curve has constant torsion, we obtain the…

We find bounds on the difference between the writhing number of a smooth curve, and the writhing number of a polygon inscribed within. The proof is based on an extension of Fuller's difference of writhe formula to the case of polygonal…

The boundary of the convex hull of a compact algebraic curve in real 3-space defines a real algebraic surface. For general curves, that boundary surface is reducible, consisting of tritangent planes and a scroll of stationary bisecants. We…

We give bounds on the number of non-simple closed curves on a negatively curved surface, given upper bounds on both length and self-intersection number. In particular, it was previously known that the number of all closed curves of length…

In this paper, the general formulation for inextensible flows of curves on oriented surface in $\mathbb{R}^3 $ is investigated. The necessary and sufficient conditions for inextensible curve flow lying an oriented surface are expressed as a…

We give a sharp lower bound on the area of the domain enclosed by an embedded curve lying on a two-dimensional sphere, provided that geodesic curvature of this curve is bounded from below. Furthermore, we prove some dual inequalities for…

If a curve in R^3 is closed, then the curvature and the torsion are periodic functions satisfying some additional constraints. We show that these constraints can be naturally formulated in terms of the spectral problem for a 2x2 matrix…

The geodesic total curvature of rectifiable spherical curves is analyzed. We extend to the case of high dimension spheres the explicit formula that holds true for curves supported into the 2-sphere. For this purpose, we take advantage of…

We consider embedded, smooth curves in the plane which are either closed or asymptotic to two lines. We study their behaviour under curve shortening flow with a global forcing term. Firstly, we prove an analogue to Huisken's distance…

We propose a simple method of explicit description of families of closed geodesics on a triaxial ellipsoid $Q$ that are cut out by algebraic surfaces in ${\mathbb R}^3$. Such geodesics are either connected components of spatial elliptic…

Using an explicit family of plane quartic curves, we prove the existence of a genus 3 curve over any finite field of characteristic 3 whose number of rational points stays within a fixed distance from the Hasse-Weil-Serre upper bound. We…

The purpose of this article is to find a family of curves parametrized by arc length and that depend on an angular function and an intrinsic fraction function, which is defined as the quotient between torsion and curvature. We find for this…

In this study, we define the generalized normal ruled surface of a curve in the Euclidean 3-space $E^3$. We study the geometry of such surfaces by calculating the Gaussian and mean curvatures to determine when the surface is flat or minimal…

The well known formulas express the curvature and the torsion of a curve in $R^3$ in terms of euclidean invariants of its derivatives. We obtain expressions of this kind for all curvatures of curves in $R^n$. It follows that a curve in…

We present algorithms to compute the topology of 2D and 3D hyperelliptic curves. The algorithms are based on the fact that 2D and 3D hyperelliptic curves can be seen as the image of a planar curve (the Weierstrass form of the curve), whose…

In this paper, we provide a sufficient condition for a curve on a surface in $\mathbb{R}^3$ to be given by an orthogonal intersection with a sphere. This result makes it possible to express the boundary condition entirely in terms of the…

The classical Whitney formula relates the number of times an oriented plane curve cuts itself to its rotation number and the index of a base point. In this paper we generalize Whitney's formula to curves on an oriented punctured surface. To…

Curves in ${\mathbb R}^n$ for which the ratios between two consecutive curvatures are constant are characterized by the fact that their tangent indicatrix is a geodesic in a flat torus. For $n= 3,4$, spherical curves of this kind are also…

It is well known that the area $U$ of the triangle formed by three tangents to a parabola $X$ is half of the area $T$ of the triangle formed by joining their points of contact. In this article, we consider whether this property and similar…