Polyhedral hyperbolic metrics on surfaces

In the last section of \cite{CompHyp} it is proved that the map $\mathcal{I}$ is a finite-sheeted covering map between $\mathcal{P}$ and $\mathcal{M}$. As $\mathcal{M}$ is simply connected it is deduced that $\mathcal{I}$ is a homeomorphism. The fact that $\mathcal{P}$ is connected is missing. Here we provide a proof

Polygons of the Lorentzian plane and spherical simplexes

It is known that the space of convex polygons in the Euclidean plane with fixed normals, up to homotheties and translations, endowed with the area form, is isometric to a hyperbolic polyhedron. In this note we show a class of convex polygons in the Lorentzian plane such that their moduli space, if the normals are fixed and endowed with a suitable area, is isometric to a spherical polyhedron. These polygons have an infinite number of vertices, are space-like, contained in the future cone of the origin, and setwise invariant under the action of a linear isometry.Comment: New text, title slightly change

Polyhedral realisation of hyperbolic metrics with conical singularities on compact surfaces

A Fuchsian polyhedron in hyperbolic space is a polyhedral surface invariant under the action of a Fuchsian group of isometries (i.e. a group of isometries leaving globally invariant a totally geodesic surface, on which it acts cocompactly). The induced metric on a convex Fuchsian polyhedron is isometric to a hyperbolic metric with conical singularities of positive singular curvature on a compact surface of genus greater than one. We prove that these metrics are actually realised by exactly one convex Fuchsian polyhedron (up to global isometries). This extends a famous theorem of A.D. Alexandrov.Comment: Some little corrections from the preceding version. To appear in Les Annales de l'Institut Fourie

Existence and uniqueness theorem for convex polyhedral metrics on compact surfaces

We state that any constant curvature Riemannian metric with conical singularities of constant sign curvature on a compact (orientable) surface $S$ can be realized as a convex polyhedron in a Riemannian or Lorentzian) space-form. Moreover such a polyhedron is unique, up to global isometries, among convex polyhedra invariant under isometries acting on a totally umbilical surface. This general statement falls apart into 10 different cases. The cases when $S$ is the sphere are classical.Comment: Survey paper. No proof. 10 page

Fuchsian polyhedra in Lorentzian space-forms

Let S be a compact surface of genus >1, and g be a metric on S of constant curvature K\in\{-1,0,1\} with conical singularities of negative singular curvature. When K=1 we add the condition that the lengths of the contractible geodesics are >2\pi. We prove that there exists a convex polyhedral surface P in the Lorentzian space-form of curvature K and a group G of isometries of this space such that the induced metric on the quotient P/G is isometric to (S,g). Moreover, the pair (P,G) is unique (up to global isometries) among a particular class of convex polyhedra, namely Fuchsian polyhedra. This extends theorems of A.D. Alexandrov and Rivin--Hodgson concerning the sphere to the higher genus cases, and it is also the polyhedral version of a theorem of Labourie--Schlenker

Gauss images of hyperbolic cusps with convex polyhedral boundary

We prove that a 3--dimensional hyperbolic cusp with convex polyhedral boundary is uniquely determined by its Gauss image. Furthermore, any spherical metric on the torus with cone singularities of negative curvature and all closed contractible geodesics of length greater than $2\pi$ is the metric of the Gauss image of some convex polyhedral cusp. This result is an analog of the Rivin-Hodgson theorem characterizing compact convex hyperbolic polyhedra in terms of their Gauss images. The proof uses a variational method. Namely, a cusp with a given Gauss image is identified with a critical point of a functional on the space of cusps with cone-type singularities along a family of half-lines. The functional is shown to be concave and to attain maximum at an interior point of its domain. As a byproduct, we prove rigidity statements with respect to the Gauss image for cusps with or without cone-type singularities. In a special case, our theorem is equivalent to existence of a circle pattern on the torus, with prescribed combinatorics and intersection angles. This is the genus one case of a theorem by Thurston. In fact, our theorem extends Thurston's theorem in the same way as Rivin-Hodgson's theorem extends Andreev's theorem on compact convex polyhedra with non-obtuse dihedral angles. The functional used in the proof is the sum of a volume term and curvature term. We show that, in the situation of Thurston's theorem, it is the potential for the combinatorial Ricci flow considered by Chow and Luo. Our theorem represents the last special case of a general statement about isometric immersions of compact surfaces.Comment: 55 pages, 17 figure

The equivariant Minkowski problem in Minkowski space

The classical Minkowski problem in Minkowski space asks, for a positive function $\phi$ on $\mathbb{H}^d$, for a convex set $K$ in Minkowski space with $C^2$ space-like boundary $S$, such that $\phi(\eta)^{-1}$ is the Gauss--Kronecker curvature at the point with normal $\eta$. Analogously to the Euclidean case, it is possible to formulate a weak version of this problem: given a Radon measure $\mu$ on $\mathbb{H}^d$ the generalized Minkowski problem in Minkowski space asks for a convex subset $K$ such that the area measure of $K$ is $\mu$. In the present paper we look at an equivariant version of the problem: given a uniform lattice $\Gamma$ of isometries of $\mathbb{H}^d$, given a $\Gamma$ invariant Radon measure $\mu$, given a isometry group $\Gamma_{\tau}$ of Minkowski space, with $\Gamma$ as linear part, there exists a unique convex set with area measure $\mu$, invariant under the action of $\Gamma_{\tau}$. The proof uses a functional which is the covolume associated to every invariant convex set. This result translates as a solution of the Minkowski problem in flat space times with compact hyperbolic Cauchy surface. The uniqueness part, as well as regularity results, follow from properties of the Monge--Amp\`ere equation. The existence part can be translated as an existence result for Monge--Amp\`ere equation. The regular version was proved by T.~Barbot, F.~B\'eguin and A.~Zeghib for $d=2$ and by V.~Oliker and U.~Simon for $\Gamma_{\tau}=\Gamma$. Our method is totally different. Moreover, we show that those cases are very specific: in general, there is no smooth $\Gamma_\tau$-invariant surface of constant Gauss-Kronecker curvature equal to $1$

Lorentzian area measures and the Christoffel problem

We introduce a particular class of unbounded closed convex sets of $\R^{d+1}$, called F-convex sets (F stands for future). To define them, we use the Minkowski bilinear form of signature $(+,...,+,-)$ instead of the usual scalar product, and we ask the Gauss map to be a surjection onto the hyperbolic space \H^d. Important examples are embeddings of the universal cover of so-called globally hyperbolic maximal flat Lorentzian manifolds. Basic tools are first derived, similarly to the classical study of convex bodies. For example, F-convex sets are determined by their support function, which is defined on \H^d. Then the area measures of order $i$, $0\leq i\leq d$ are defined. As in the convex bodies case, they are the coefficients of the polynomial in $\epsilon$ which is the volume of an $\epsilon$ approximation of the convex set. Here the area measures are defined with respect to the Lorentzian structure. Then we focus on the area measure of order one. Finding necessary and sufficient conditions for a measure (here on \H^d) to be the first area measure of a F-convex set is the Christoffel Problem. We derive many results about this problem. If we restrict to "Fuchsian" F-convex set (those who are invariant under linear isometries acting cocompactly on \H^d), then the problem is totally solved, analogously to the case of convex bodies. In this case the measure can be given on a compact hyperbolic manifold. Particular attention is given on the smooth and polyhedral cases. In those cases, the Christoffel problem is equivalent to prescribing the mean radius of curvature and the edge lengths respectively