Abstract
This paper investigates the hanging chain problem in the simply isotropic plane and its 2-dimensional analog in the simply isotropic space. The simply isotropic plane and space are two- and three-dimensional geometries equipped with a degenerate metric whose kernel has dimension 1. Although the metric is degenerate, the hanging chain and surface problems are well-posed if we employ the relative arc length and relative area to measure the weight. Here, the concepts of relative arc length and relative area emerge by seeing the simply isotropic geometry as a relative geometry. In addition to characterizing the simply isotropic catenary, i.e., the solutions to the hanging chain problem, we also prove that it is the generating curve of a minimal surface of revolution in the simply isotropic space. Finally, we obtain the 2-dimensional analog of the catenaries, the so-called singular minimal surfaces, and determine the shape of a hanging surface of revolution in the simply isotropic space.
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Notes
A 1-parameter subgroup \({\mathcal {G}}\) is a group homomorphism between \({\mathbb {R}}\) equipped with the addition and \(\textrm{ISO}({\mathbb {I}}^3)\), i.e., \({\mathcal {G}}_{t+s}={\mathcal {G}}_t\circ {\mathcal {G}}_s\) and \({\mathcal {G}}_0=\textrm{Id}\), where \({\mathcal {G}}_t={\mathcal {G}}(t)\).
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Acknowledgements
Luiz da Silva acknowledges the support provided by the Morá Miriam Rozen Gerber fellowship for Brazilian postdocs and the Faculty of Physics Postdoctoral Excellence Fellowship. Rafael López is a member of the IMAG and of the Research Group “Problemas variacionales en geometría”, Junta de Andalucía (FQM 325). This research has been partially supported by MINECO/MICINN/FEDER Grant No. PID2020-117868GB-I00, and by the “María de Maeztu” Excellence Unit IMAG, reference CEX2020-001105- M, funded by MCINN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/ CEX2020-001105-M.
Funding
Funding was provided by Feinberg Graduate School, Weizmann Institute of Science, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Grant Numbers PID2020-117868GBI00, MCINN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/CEX2020-001105-M).
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da Silva, L.C.B., López, R. Catenaries and Singular Minimal Surfaces in the Simply Isotropic Space. Results Math 78, 204 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00025-023-01976-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00025-023-01976-6