LCVMM | Teaching

Informations générales

This is the 2016-17 version of the page. The new page is here .

Enseignant:

John H. Maddocks

Horaires:

Cours: lundis de 15h15 à 17h, salle MAB111
Exercices: jeudis de 12h15 à 14h, salle MAA110

Assistant:

Thomas Lessinnes

Cours

Requirements

1st and 2nd year courses in math or physics, (or with teacher's permission)

This course will describe the classic differential geometry of curves, tubes and ribbons, and associated coordinate systems. We will prove various classic mathematical theorems such as the Weyl-Hotelling formula for tube volumes, and the relation between Link, Twist and Writhe, which couples differential geometry and topological invariance for closed and knotted framed curves. While we will not consider applications explicitly in this course, much of the mathematical material that will be described is central in various problems of mechanics, including nanostructures and topological fluid mechanics.

Parts:

1) Framed Curves--basic differential geometry of curves in the group SE(3) of rigid body displacements

2) The Calugareanu-Fuller-White Theorem Lk = Tw + Wr. Topology meets vector analysis and non-uniform convergence

3) The geometry of Coordinates on SO(3) and 2pi vs 4pi. Euler angles, Cayley vectors, Euler parameters, and quaternions.

4) Fattened curves, Tubes and Ribbons. Contact framings, global radius of curvature, and ideal shapes.

Lecture notes

These notes are meant to supplement your personal notes. They are to be understood as a first draft and as such may contain inaccuracies and mistakes. Be critical and do not hesitate to let us know if you find errors and/or typos. Furthermore, they make no pretence of being exhaustive. The material of the course is by definition what is exposed during lectures and exercise sessions. Finally, as the semester progresses, come back to the website and check frequently: pay attention to the version numbers. The notes will be edited as we progress during semester. The original document is a collection of chapters corresponding to the different lectures given last year. The horizontal red line indicates where the oral lecture is at.

The keen student, will also find relevant material on last year's webpage.

There is an older polycopie associated with a DNA modelling masters course with some chapters, specifically chapters 8 and 9 on this page. This material will be incorporated in the new polycopie in due course.

Week-by-week correspondence

Week 1 (19.9)	Jeune Federal.
Week 2 (26.9)	The Lie groups O(3), SO(3), E(3) and SE(3), and framed curves, intrinsic, extrinsic, adapted or not. Frenet equations of a space curve.
Week 3 (3.10)	Curves in SO(3) and in SE(3). Darboux vectors of a curve in SE(3). Darboux vector of the Frenet frame and of adapted frames in general. End of Chapter 1.
Week 4 (10.10)	Start of Chapter 2: Definition of an offset curve. Definition of Link, Twist and Writhe, and the first statement of the Calugareanu-Fuller-White Theorem for closed framings of a close curve. Definition and properties of Lk.
Week 5 (17.10)	Link as a signed area and signed crossing count. Here are the files used for the mathematica demo.
Week 6 (24.10)	Rappel of chapter 1. Tangent indicatrix.
Week 7 (31.10)	Discussion of properties of Writhe. Interpretation of the Writhe integral in terms of global radius of curvature circles.
Week 8 (07.11)	Proof of C-F-W.
Week 9 (14.11)	Strand passages and curves with an even or odd 'number of turns'. Register angle between two framings. Discussion of particular framings of curves: surface, Frenet-Serret, parallel transport, and Writhe framings.
Week 10 (21.11)	Writhe framing. Closed curves with open framings. Closure of open curves in general and biarc closure in general.
Week 11 (28.11)	Coordinates on the rotation group: part I. Euler angles, Euler-Rodrigues parameters, and quaternions. Besides the polycopie, see also these notes from Dichmann.
Week 12 (05.12)	Cayley transforms, Cayley vectors (sometimes also called Gibbs vectors) and connections to the Rodrigues formula and the Euler-Rodrigues parameters. Discussion of the multiply covered circle.
Week 13 (12.12)	Volume of a tube. Condition for local self-intersection avoidance. Equilibrium of strings and the case of frictionless contact in particular. Here are notes meant to complement your own.

Exercices

Séries d'exercices	Corrigés
serie01.pdf serie02.pdf serie03.pdf serie04.pdf serie05.pdf serie06.pdf serie07.pdf serie08.pdf serie09.pdf serie10.pdf serie11.pdf serie12.pdf serie13.pdf serie14.pdf	corr01.pdf corr02.pdf corr03.pdf corr04.pdf corr05.pdf corr06.pdf corr07.pdf corr08.pdf corr09.pdf corr10.pdf corr11.pdf corr12.pdf corr13.pdf corr14.pdf

Bibliography

There is no text book that we are aware of covering the material of this course. The first part on Frenet frames is however very standard and is discussed in any book on the Elementary Differential Geometry of Curves and Surfaces, of which there are many. One good one is by D. J. Struik, and another (from which some of the series questions were taken by M. P. Do Carmo).

The citations below are to research or survey articles concerning the material of the course. The citations have links to PDF versions of the articles but for copyright reasons the links are restricted to students in the class via password protestion, login: frames, password as given in class.

Two articles, partially contradictory, regarding the history of the Gauss linking number :

Orbits of asteroids, a braid, and the first link invariant, M. Epple, Math. Intell., vol. 20 (1998), pp. 45--52
DOI: 10.1007/BF03024400.
Gauss' Linking Number Revisited, R. L. Ricca and B. Nipoti, J. Knot Theory Its Ramifications 20 (2011), pp. 1325--1343
DOI: 10.1142/S0218216511009261.

Three survey articles and a book discussing link, twist, and writhe, and the Calugareanu-Fuller-White (CFW) theorem including connections with DNA

Questions de topologie en biologie moléculaire, C. Weber, Gazette des mathématiciens, Vol. 64 (1995), pp. 29--42.
This one is from a particular point of view (the author Pohl was White's PhD supervisor) DNA and differential geometry, W. F. Pohl, The Mathematical Intelligencer, vol. 3 (1980), pp. 20--27.
An article (there are many others) describing connexions to DNA: DNA Topology: Fundamentals, S. M. Mirkin, Life Sciences, vol. 123 (2001), pp. 1--1
DOI: 10.1021/ja0156845.
The CFW theorem in a standard biochemistry textbook for first year medical students Biochemistry, D. Voet and J. Voet, (1994)

An article on magnetohydrodynamics which relates helicity of a vector field to the CFW. The introduction contains a historical perspective of the CFW theorem.

Helicity and the Calugareanu invariant, H. K. Moffat and R. Ricca Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A, vol 439 (1992), pp 411--429.

An article on scroll waves, with an extensive discussion of the CFW theorem, including another historical perspective.

The differential geometry of scroll waves, J. J. Tyson and S. H. Strogatz Int. Jour. Bifurcation and Chaos, vol 1 (1991), pp 723--744.

More technical articles

The three original articles by Călugăreanu (the third one in Romanian):

L'integrale de Gauss et l'analyse des noeuds tridimensionnels, G. Călugăreanu, Rev. Math. pures appl, vol. 4 (1959).
Sur les classes d'isotopie des noeuds tridimensionnels et leurs invariants, G. Călugăreanu, Czechoslov. Math. J., vol. 11 (1961), pp. 588--625.
O Teorema Asupra Inlantuirilor Tridimensionale de Curbe Inchise, G. Călugăreanu, Comunicarile Academiei Republicii Populare Romine, (1961), pp. 829--832.

Three original articles by Fuller:

The writhing number of a space curve, F. B. Fuller, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A., vol. 68 (1971), pp. 815--819
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.68.4.815.
How the writhing number of a curve depends on the curve, F. B. Fuller, Rev. Math. pures appl, vol. XVII (1972)
Decomposition of the linking number of a closed ribbon: A problem from molecular biology., F. B. Fuller, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A., vol. 75 (1978), pp. 3557--3561
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.75.8.3557.

An article that gives much more detailed proofs of what Fuller states plus original results on how Writhe changes under homotopy

Formulae for the calculation and estimation of writhe, J. Aldinger, I. Klapper, and M. Tabor, J. Knot Theory and Its Ramifications, vol. 04 (1995), 343.

An article that outlines a geometric point of view of the proof of CFW: the proof comes as a direct application of Stokes theorem on the pull-back of a certain 2-form. Note however that a discussion of the smoothness of the curves concerned is missing as well as a discussion of why it is that the various integrals defined do converge. A similar, and perhaps more accessible, discussion of Stokes Theorem applied to the spanning Seifert surface of a closed curve (including knotted curves) are also presented in the Tyson and Strogatz article cited above.

On White's formula, M.H. Eggar, J. Knot Theory Ramifications, vol. 09 (2000).

Articles on the differential geometry of closed curves :

On the differential geometry of closed space curves, W. Fenchel, Bull. Am. Math. Soc., vol. 57 (1951), pp. 44--55
DOI: 10.1090/S0002-9904-1951-09440-9.
The Self-Linking Number of a Closed Space Curve, W. F. Pohl, J. Math. Mech., vol. 17 (1968), pp. 975--985.

Ribbons in other application areas

Ribbons: Their Geometry and Topology, C. K. Au and T. C. Woo, Computer-Aided Design and Applications, Vol. 1 (2004), pp. 1--6.
An article on molecules with Möbius topology Möbius molecules with twists and writhes, S. R. Schaller and Rainer Herges, Chem. Commun., vol. 49 (2013), pp. 1254-1260.

Articles about the Writhe framing

Link, Twist, Energy, and the Stability of DNA Minicircles, K. A. Hoffman, R. S. Manning, and J. H. Maddocks, Biopolymers, vol. 70 (2003), pp. 145--157.
Geometry of Călugăreanu theorem, M. R. Dennis and J. H. Hannay, Proc. Roy. Soc. A, vol. 461 (2005), pp. 3245--3254.

Articles concerning optimal tube packing

The article that introduced global radius of curvature Global curvature, thickness, and the ideal shapes of knots, O. Gonzalez and J. H. Maddocks, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, vol. 96 (1994), pp. 4769-4773.
Best packing in proteins and DNA, A. Stasiak, and J. H. Maddocks, Nature, vol. 406 (2000), pp. 251--253.
Optimal shapes of compact strings, A. Maritan, C. Micheletti, A. Trovato, and J. R. Banavar, Nature, vol. 406 (2000), pp. 287--290.

Articles extending the class of curves for which Writhe can be defined

On the writhe of non-closed curves, E. L. Starostin, arXiv 0212095, (2002).
Computing the Writhing Number of a Polygonal Knot, P. K. Agarwal, H. E. Edelsbrunner, and Y. Wang, Discrete Comput Geom 32:37–53 (2004).
The writhe of open and closed curves, M. A. Berger and C. Prior, J. Phys. A: Math. Gen., vol 39, (2006), pp. 8321–8348.
The extended polar writhe: a tool for open curves mechanics, C. Prior and S. Neukirch (2015) hal-01228386.
Writhing Geometry at Finite Temperature: Random Walks and Geometric phases for Stiff Polymers, A. C. Maggs.
Writhing geometry of open DNA, V. Rossetto and A. C. Maggs.
Computation of Writhe in Modeling of Supercoiled DNA, K. Klenin and J. Langowski, Biopolymers 54.5 (2000): 307--317.

Further generalisations

White's orginal contribution in generalising "CFW" to higher dimensions Self-linking and the gauss integral in higher dimensions., J.H. White, American Jour. Math., vol. 91 (1969), pp. 693--728.
A paper on generalising Link, Twist, and Writhe to non-Euclidean three dimensional spaces. Although it assumes prior knowledge of differential geometry on Lie groups, Section 2 is accessible by all and provides a nice historical background. Electrodynamics and the Gauss linking integral on the 3-sphere and in hyperbolic 3- space, D. DeTurck and H. Gluck, Jour. Math. Phys. vol 49 (2008), 023504.

Differential Geometry of Framed Curves 2016-2017