The envelope of lines meeting a fixed line that are tangent to two spheres

We first review some topics in the classical computational geometry of lines, in particular the O(n^{3+\epsilon}) bounds for the combinatorial complexity of the set of lines in R^3 interacting with $n$ objects of fixed description complexity. The main part of this survey is recent work on a core algebraic problem--studying the lines tangent to k spheres that also meet 4-k fixed lines. We give an example of four disjoint spheres with 12 common real tangents.

We solve the following geometric problem, which arises in several three-dimensional applications in computational geometry: For which arrangements of two lines and two spheres in R^3 are there infinitely many lines simultaneously transversal to the two lines and tangent to the two spheres? We also treat a generalization of this problem to projective quadrics: Replacing the spheres in R^3 by quadrics in projective space P^3, and fixing the lines and one general quadric, we g...

We show that there are 3 \cdot 2^(n-1) complex common tangent lines to 2n-2 general spheres in R^n and that there is a choice of spheres with all common tangents real.

We study the variety of common tangents for up to four quadric surfaces in projective three-space, with particular regard to configurations of four quadrics admitting a continuum of common tangents. We formulate geometrical conditions in the projective space defined by all complex quadric surfaces which express the fact that several quadrics are tangent along a curve to one and the same quadric of rank at least three, and called, for intuitive reasons: a basket. Lines in an...

In this work, we obtain an unexpected geometric characterization of sphericity of a real-analytic Levi-nondegenerate hypersurface $M\subset\mathbb C^{2}$. We prove that $M$ is spherical if and only if its Segre\,(-Webster) varieties satisfy an elementary combinatorial property, identical to a property of straight lines on the plane and known in Projective Geometry as the {\em Desargues Theorem}.

Any four mutually tangent spheres in R^3 determine three coincident lines through opposite pairs of tangencies. As a consequence, we define two new triangle centers.

This article is covered by the article arxiv.1012.0925 We study intersection of two polyhedral spheres without self-intersections in 3-space. We find necessary and sufficient conditions on sequences x = x_1,x_2,...,x_n, y = y_1,y_2,...,y_n of positive integers, for existence of 2-dimensional polyhedra f,g in R^3 homeomorphic to the sphere and such that * f-g has n connected components, of which the i-th one has x_i neighbors in f and * g-f has n connected components, of whi...

In this paper we present an algorithm to compute the (real and complex) straight lines contained in a rational surface, defined by a rational parameterization. The algorithm relies on the well-known theorem of Differential Geometry that characterizes real straight lines contained in a surface as curves that are simultaneously asymptotic lines, and geodesics. We also report on an implementation carried out in Maple 18, and we compare the behavior of our algorithm with two brut...

We study intersection of two polyhedral spheres without self-intersections in 3-space. We find necessary and sufficient conditions on sequences x = x_1,x_2,...,x_n, y = y_1,y_2,...,y_n of positive integers, for existence of 2-dimensional polyhedra f,g in R^3 homeomorphic to the sphere and such that * f-g has n connected components, of which the i-th one has x_i neighbors in f and * g-f has n connected components, of which the i-th one has y_i neighbors in g. Analogously...

In this paper are determined the principal curvatures and principal curvature lines on canal surfaces which are the envelopes of families of spheres with variable radius and centers moving along a closed regular curve in R^3. By means of a connection of the differential equations for these curvature lines and real Riccati equations, it is established that canal surfaces have at most two isolated periodic principal lines. Examples of canal surfaces with two simple and one doub...