Curvas no espaço de Minkowski

Abstract

We study in this thesis the geometry of curves in Minkowski 3-space and 4-space using singularity theory, more specifically, the contact theory. For this we study the families of height functions and of the distance square functions on the curves. The discriminant sets and bifurcation sets of these families are essential tools in our work. For curves in Minkowski 3-space, we study their focal sets and the bifurcation set of the family of the distance square functions on these curves in order to investigate what happens near the lightlike points. We also study the spherical focal sets and bifurcation sets of curves in the de Sitter space in Minkowski 3-space and 4-space. We define pseudo-spherical normal Darboux images of curves on a timelike surface in Minkowski 3-space and study the singularities and geometric properties of these normal Darboux images. Furthermore, we investigate the relation of the de Sitter (hyperbolic) normal Darboux image of a spacelike curve in S 2 1 with the lightlike surface along this spacelike curve. We define the horospherical and hyperbolic dual surfaces of spacelike curves in de Sitter space S 3 1 and study these surfaces using singularity theory technics. We give a relation between these surfaces from the view point of Legendrian dualities. Finally, we consider curves on a spacelike hypersurface in Minkowski 4-space and define the hyperbolic surface of this curve. We study the local geometry of the hyperbolic surface and of the hyperbolic curve that is defined as being the locus of singularities of the hyperbolic surface.