Search results for "Geodesic curvature"

The geometry of canal surfaces and the length of curves in de Sitter space

2011

Abstract We find the minimal value of the length in de Sitter space of closed space-like curves with non-vanishing non-space-like geodesic curvature vector. These curves are in correspondence with closed almost-regular canal surfaces, and their length is a natural magnitude in conformal geometry. As an application, we get a lower bound for the total conformal torsion of closed space curves.