In this section, we take a closer look at the curvature at a point of a curve on a surface
. Assuming that
is parameterized by arc length, we will see that the vector
(which is equal to
, where
is the principal normal to the curve
at
, and
is the curvature) can be written as
,
where is the normal to the surface at
, and
is a tangential component normal to the curve.
The component is called the normal curvature. Computing it will lead to the second fundamental form, another very important quadratic form associated with a surface. The component
is called the geodesic curvature.
It turns out that it only depends on the first fundamental form, but computing it is quite complicated, and this will lead to the Christoffel symbols.
Definition 1. Given a surface
, given any curve
on
, for any point
on
, the orthonormal frame
is defined such that
where
is the normal vector to the surface
at
. The vector
is called the geodesic normal vector.
Observe that is the unit normal vector to the curve
contained in the tangent space
at
. If we use the frame
, we will see shortly that
can be written as
,
The component is the orthogonal projection of
onto the normal direction
, and for this reason
is called the normal curvature of
at
. The component
is the orthogonal projection of
onto the tangent space
at
.
We now show how to compute the normal curvature. This will uncover the second fundamental form. Since , using chain rule we get
.
In order to decompose into its normal component (along
) and its tangential component, we use a neat trick suggested by Eugenio Calabi. Recall that
.
Using this identity we have
Since is a unit vector we can write
Thus, it is clear that the normal component is
,
and the normal curvature is given by
.
Letting
we have
.
Recalling that
,
using the Lagrange identity
,
we see that
,
and can be writtne as
,
where is the determinant of three vectors. Some authors (including Gauss himself and Darboux) use the notation
and we also have
.
These expressions were used by Gauss to prove his famous Theorema Egregium.
Definition 2. Given a surface
, for any point
on
, letting
,
where
is the unit normal at
, the quadratic form
is called the second fundamental form of
at
. It is often denoted as
and in matrix form, we have
.
For a curve
on the surface
(parameterized by arc length), the quantity
given by the formula
is called the normal curvature of
at
.
The second fundamental form was introduced by Gauss in 1827. Unlike the first fundamental form, the second fundamental form is not necessarily positive or definite.
Gaussian curvature. The Gaussian curvature of a surface is given by
,
Theorema egregium of Gauss states that the Gaussian curvature of a surface can be expressed solely in terms of the first fundamental form and its derivatives, so that is in fact an intrinsic invariant of the surface. An explicit expression for the Gaussian curvature in terms of the first fundamental form is provided by the Brioschi formula.