A four vertex theorem for strictly convex space curves

Global properties of codimension two spacelike submanifolds in Minkowski space

Abstract We consider codimension two spacelike submanifolds with a parallel normal field (i.e. vanishing normal curvature) in Minkowski space. We use the analysis of their contacts with hyperplanes and hyperquadrics in order to get some global information on them. As a consequence we obtain new versions of Carathéodory's and Loewner's conjectures on spacelike surfaces in 4-dimensional Minkowski space and 4-flattenings theorems for closed spacelike curves in 3-dimensional Minkowski space.

Curvature locus and principal configurations of submanifolds of Euclidean space

We study relations between the properties of the curvature loci of a submanifold M in Euclidean space and the behaviour of the principal configurations of M, in particular the existence of umbilic and quasiumbilic fields. We pay special attention to the case of submanifolds with vanishing normal curvature. We also characterize local convexity in terms of the curvature locus position in the normal space.