Variational principles for circle patterns

A Delaunay cell decomposition of a surface with constant curvature gives rise to a circle pattern, consisting of the circles which are circumscribed to the facets. We treat the problem whether there exists a Delaunay cell decomposition for a given (topological) cell decomposition and given intersection angles of the circles, whether it is unique and how it may be constructed. Somewhat more generally, we allow cone-like singularities in the centers and intersection points of the circles. We prove existence and uniqueness theorems for the solution of the circle pattern problem using a variational principle. The functionals (one for the euclidean, one for the hyperbolic case) are convex functions of the radii of the circles. The analogous functional for the spherical case is not convex, hence this case is treated by stereographic projection to the plane. From the existence and uniqueness of circle patterns in the sphere, we derive a strengthened version of Steinitz' theorem on the geometric realizability of abstract polyhedra. We derive the variational principles of Colin de Verdi\`ere, Br\"agger, and Rivin for circle packings and circle patterns from our variational principles. In the case of Br\"agger's and Rivin's functionals. Leibon's functional for hyperbolic circle patterns cannot be derived directly from our functionals. But we construct yet another functional from which both Leibon's and our functionals can be derived. We present Java software to compute and visualize circle patterns.Comment: PhD thesis, iv+94 pages, many figures (mostly vector graphics

Discrete Yamabe problem for polyhedral surfaces

We introduce a new discretization of the Gaussian curvature on piecewise at surfaces. As the prime new feature the curvature is scaled by the factor 1/r2 upon scaling the metric globally with the factor r. We develop a variational principle to tackle the corresponding discrete uniformisation theorem – we show that each piecewise at surface is discrete conformally equivalent to one with constant discrete Gaussian curvature. This surface is in general not unique. We demonstrate uniqueness for particular cases and disprove it in general by providing explicit counterexamples. Special attention is paid to dealing with change of combinatorics

Minimal surfaces from circle patterns: Geometry from combinatorics

We suggest a new definition for discrete minimal surfaces in terms of sphere packings with orthogonally intersecting circles. These discrete minimal surfaces can be constructed from Schramm's circle patterns. We present a variational principle which allows us to construct discrete analogues of some classical minimal surfaces. The data used for the construction are purely combinatorial--the combinatorics of the curvature line pattern. A Weierstrass-type representation and an associated family are derived. We show the convergence to continuous minimal surfaces.Comment: 30 pages, many figures, some in reduced resolution. v2: Extended introduction. Minor changes in presentation. v3: revision according to the referee's suggestions, improved & expanded exposition, references added, minor mistakes correcte

Hyperbolic constant mean curvature one surfaces: Spinor representation and trinoids in hypergeometric functions

We present a global representation for surfaces in 3-dimensional hyperbolic space with constant mean curvature 1 (CMC-1 surfaces) in terms of holomorphic spinors. This is a modification of Bryant's representation. It is used to derive explicit formulas in hypergeometric functions for CMC-1 surfaces of genus 0 with three regular ends which are asymptotic to catenoid cousins (CMC-1 trinoids).Comment: 29 pages, 9 figures. v2: figures of cmc1-surfaces correcte

A unique representation of polyhedral types

It is known that for each combinatorial type of convex 3-dimensional polyhedra, there is a representative with edges tangent to the unit sphere. This representative is unique up to projective transformations that fix the unit sphere. We show that there is a unique representative (up to congruence) with edges tangent to the unit sphere such that the origin is the barycenter of the points where the edges touch the sphere.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. v2: belated upload of final version (of March 2004

Discrete conformal maps and ideal hyperbolic polyhedra

We establish a connection between two previously unrelated topics: a particular discrete version of conformal geometry for triangulated surfaces, and the geometry of ideal polyhedra in hyperbolic three-space. Two triangulated surfaces are considered discretely conformally equivalent if the edge lengths are related by scale factors associated with the vertices. This simple definition leads to a surprisingly rich theory featuring M\"obius invariance, the definition of discrete conformal maps as circumcircle preserving piecewise projective maps, and two variational principles. We show how literally the same theory can be reinterpreted to addresses the problem of constructing an ideal hyperbolic polyhedron with prescribed intrinsic metric. This synthesis enables us to derive a companion theory of discrete conformal maps for hyperbolic triangulations. It also shows how the definitions of discrete conformality considered here are closely related to the established definition of discrete conformality in terms of circle packings.Comment: 62 pages, 22 figures. v2: typos corrected, references added and updated, minor changes in exposition. v3, final version: typos corrected, improved exposition, some material moved to appendice