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SynopsisFor a smooth manifold M ⊆ ℝn, the symmetry set S(M) is defined to be the closure of the set of points u∈ℝn which are centres of spheres tangent to M at two or more distinct points. (The idea has its origin in the theory of shape recognition.) The connexion with singularities is that S(M) can be described alternatively as the levels bifurcation set of the family of distance-squared functions on M. In this paper a multi-germ version of the standard uniqueness result for versal unfoldings of potential functions is used to obtain a complete list of local normal forms (up to diffeomorphism) for the symmetry sets of generic plane curves, generic space curves, and generic surfaces in 3-space. For these cases the authors verify that M can be recovered as the envelope of a family of spheres centred at smooth points of S(M).

The genesis of this paper lies in theoretical questions in kinematics where a central role is played by naturally occurring families of rigid motions of 3-space. The resulting trajectories are parametrized families of space curves, and it is important to understand the generic singularities they can exhibit. For practical purposes one seeks to classify germs of space curves of fairly small Ae-codimension. It is however little harder to list the A-simple germs, which includes all germs of Ae-codimension ≤11: that then is the principal objective of this paper.

The paper seeks to elucidate the geometry of a simple engineering mechanism, comprising four bars smoothly jointed together to form a movable quadrilateral with one fixed side. The configurations of this mechanism correspond to the points of an elliptic curve, to which is associated interesting geometry and Morse theory. By appropriate projection, this curve yields the 2-parameter family of plane curves described by points rigidly attached to the side of the quadrilateral opposite the fixed side: the geometry of the general projection is related to the configuration of lines on a Segre quartic surface.

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