Inflection points and topology of surfaces in 4-space

We consider asymptotic line fields on generic surfaces in 4-space and show that they are globally defined on locally convex surfaces, and their singularities are the inflection points of the surface. As a consequence of the generalized Poincare-Hopf formula, we obtain some relations between the number of inflection points in a generic surface and its Euler number. In particular, it follows that any 2-sphere, generically embedded as a locally convex surface in 4-space, has at least 4 inflection points.

Darboux curves on surfaces I

International audience; In 1872, G. Darboux defined a family of curves on surfaces of $\mathbb{R}^3$ which are preserved by the action of the Mobius group and share many properties with geodesics. Here, we characterize these curves under the view point of Lorentz geometry and prove that they are geodesics in a 3-dimensional sub-variety of a quadric $\Lambda^4$ contained in the 5-dimensional Lorentz space $\mathbb{R}^5_1$ naturally associated to the surface. We construct a new conformal object: the Darboux plane-field $\mathcal{D}$ and give a condition depending on the conformal principal curvatures of the surface which guarantees its integrability. We show that $\mathcal{D}$ is integrable w…

Foliations making a constant angle with principal directions on ellipsoids