Rotations of the three-sphere and symmetry of the Clifford torus

John McCuan; Lafe Spietz

Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · math/9810023

Rotations of the three-sphere and symmetry of the Clifford torus

John McCuan·Lafe Spietz

View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

We describe decomposition formulas for rotations of $R^3$ and $R^4$ that have special properties with respect to stereographic projection. We use the lower dimensional decomposition to analyze stereographic projections of great circles in $S^2 \subset R^3$. This analysis provides a pattern for our analysis of stereographic projections of the Clifford torus ${\mathcal C}\subset S^3 \subset R^4$. We use the higher dimensional decomposition to prove a symmetry assertion for stereographic projections of ${\mathcal C}$ which we believe we are the first to observe and which can be used to characterize the Clifford torus among embedded minimal tori in $S^3$---though this last assertion goes beyond the scope of this paper. An effort is made to intuitively motivate all necessary concepts including rotation, stereographic projection, and symmetry.

Explore related subjects

math.MG

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeX RIS

John McCuan, Lafe Spietz. 1998-10-05. Rotations of the three-sphere and symmetry of the Clifford torus. https://arxiv.org/abs/math/9810023

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

From the Steiner Inellipse to the John Ellipsoid of a Simplex: A Corner-Volume Characterization

For a triangle of area $T$, a planar corner-area characterization states that an interior point $M$ lies on the Steiner inellipse precisely when the three corner triangles cut off by the lines through $M$ parallel to the sides have areas $T_1,T_2,T_3$ satisfying $$ T_1+T_2+T_3=\frac12 T. $$ We give the corresponding statement for a simplex in arbitrary dimension. If $S$ is a nondegenerate $n$-simplex of volume $V$ and $V_1(M),\ldots,V_{n+1}(M)$ are the volumes of the facet-parallel corner simplices determined by $M$, then $$ M\in\partial E_J(S) \quad\Longleftrightarrow\quad \sum_{i=1}^{n+1}V_i(M)^{2/n}=\frac1n V^{2/n}, $$ where $E_J(S)$ is the John ellipsoid of $S$. We also identify the entire corner-volume functional with the central second-moment quadratic of the uniform simplex. The novelty claimed here is limited to the corner-volume formulations and their connections with the planar Steiner-inellipse result; the underlying barycentric, covariance, and John-ellipsoid facts are classical.

math.MG↗

arXiv2026

The $L_p$ Minkowski problem for $C$-close sets: existence and continuity

Let $C$ be a pointed closed convex cone in $\mathbb{R}^n$ with nonempty interior, and let $S^{n-1}$ denote the unit sphere in $\mathbb{R}^n$. The $L_p$ Minkowski problem for $C$-close sets is to determine, for a real number $p$ and a nonzero finite Borel measure $μ$ defined on $Ω_{C^\circ}=S^{n-1}\cap \mathrm{int} C^{\circ}$, whether there exists a $C$-close set $\mathds{A}$ such that $μ$ is the $L_p$ surface area measure of $\mathds{A}$. In this paper, we will solve the problem for $p\in (0,1)$ and for $μ$ being a nonzero finite Borel measure on $Ω_{C^\circ}$. Moreover, we establish the continuity of solutions to the $L_p$ Minkowski problem for $p\in [0, 1]$ in several settings.

math.MG↗

arXiv2026

Convergence of metric measure spaces via embeddings in the Urysohn universal space

We study different notions of convergence of metric measure spaces by means of isometric embeddings into the Urysohn universal metric space $\mathbb U$. Due to the universality of $\mathbb U$, the collection $\mathbb X_1$ of isomorphism classes of normalised metric measure spaces can be canonically identified with the quotient (set) $\mathscr P_\sim(\mathbb U)=\mathscr P(\mathbb U)/\sim$ of the space $\mathscr P(\mathbb U)$ of Borel probability measures on $\mathbb U$, where $μ\simν$ if $ν$ is the pushforward of $μ$ under an isometry between their respective supports. By making crucial use of the ultrahomogeneity of $\mathbb U$, we show that, under the above identification, Gromov's box topology on $\mathbb X_1$ coincides with the quotient topology induced by the weak topology of $\mathscr P(\mathbb U)$. More quantitatively, the truncated $1$-Wasserstein distance on $\mathscr P(\mathbb U)$ induces a complete and separable distance ${\sf d}_{\rm mG}$ on $\mathbb X_1\cong\mathscr P_\sim(\mathbb U)$, which metrises the quotient topology of $\mathscr P_\sim(\mathbb U)$ and is Hölder equivalent to the box distance $\square$.

math.MG↗