Natural PDE's of Linear Fractional Weingarten surfaces in Euclidean Space

We prove that the natural principal parameters on a given Weingarten surface are also natural principal parameters for the parallel surfaces of the given one. As a consequence of this result we obtain that the natural PDE of any Weingarten surface is the natural PDE of its parallel surfaces. We show that the linear fractional Weingarten surfaces are exactly the surfaces satisfying a linear relation between their three curvatures. Our main result is classification of the natural PDE's of Weingarten surfaces with linear relation between their curvatures.Comment: 16 page

The Codazzi Equation for Surfaces

In this paper we develop an abstract theory for the Codazzi equation on surfaces, and use it as an analytic tool to derive new global results for surfaces in the space forms {\bb R}^3, {\bb S}^3 and {\bb H}^3. We give essentially sharp generalizations of some classical theorems of surface theory that mainly depend on the Codazzi equation, and we apply them to the study of Weingarten surfaces in space forms. In particular, we study existence of holomorphic quadratic differentials, uniqueness of immersed spheres in geometric problems, height estimates, and the geometry and uniqueness of complete or properly embedded Weingarten surfaces

On Guichard's nets and Cyclic systems

In the first part, we give a self contained introduction to the theory of cyclic systems in n-dimensional space which can be considered as immersions into certain Grassmannians. We show how the (metric) geometries on spaces of constant curvature arise as subgeometries of Moebius geometry which provides a slightly new viewpoint. In the second part we characterize Guichard nets which are given by cyclic systems as being Moebius equivalent to 1-parameter families of linear Weingarten surfaces. This provides a new method to study families of parallel Weingarten surfaces in space forms. In particular, analogs of Bonnet's theorem on parallel constant mean curvature surfaces can be easily obtained in this setting.Comment: 25 pages, plain Te