Lines of Mean Curvature on Surfaces Immersed in R3

Ronaldo Garcia & Jorge Sotomayor


Associated to oriented surfaces immersed in $\R^3,$ here are studied pairs of transversal foliations with singularities, defined on the {\it Elliptic} region, where the Gaussian curvature $\mathcal K$, given by the product of the principal curvatures ${k_1},\; k_2$ of the immersion, is positive. The {\it leaves} of the foliations are the {\it lines of} $ {\mathcal M}$-{\it mean curvature,} along which the normal curvature of the immersion is given by a function $ {\mathcal M}={\mathcal M}({k_1},{k_2})\in [{k_1}, k_2]$, called a $ {\mathcal M}$- {\it mean curvature}, whose properties extend and unify those of the {\it arithmetic} $ {\mathcal H}=({k_1}+k_2)/2$, the {\it geometric} $\sqrt{\mathcal K}$ and {\it harmonic} ${\mathcal K}/{\mathcal H}=((1/{k_1} + 1/{k_2})/2)^{-1}$ { \it classical mean curvatures}.The {\it singularities} of the foliations are the {\it umbilic points} and {\it parabolic curves}, where ${k_1} = k_2$ and ${\mathcal K} = 0$, respectively. Here are determined the patterns of $ {\mathcal M}$- {\it mean curvature lines} near the {\it umbilic points}, {\it parabolic curves} and $ {\mathcal M}$-{\it mean curvature cycles} (the periodic leaves of the foliations), which are structurally stable under small perturbations of the immersion. The genericity of these patterns is also established.
These patterns provide the three essential local ingredients to establish sufficient conditions, likely to be also necessary, for $ {\mathcal M}$-{\it Mean Curvature Structural Stability} of immersed surfaces. This constitutes a natural unification and complement for the results obtained previously by the authors for the {\it Arithmetic}, \cite {m}, {\it Asymptotic}, \cite {a1, a2}, {\it Geometric}, \cite {g} and {\it Harmonic}, \cite {h}, {\it classical} cases of {\it Mean Curvature Structural Stability}.