Curves in a spacelike hypersurface in the Minkowski space-time

Abstract

Submanifolds in Lorentz-Minkowski space are investigated from various mathematical viewpoints and are of interest also in relativity theory. We define the hyperbolic surface and the de Sitter surface of a curve in the spacelike hypersurface M in the Minkowski 4-space. These surfaces are respectively located in the hyperbolic 3-space and in the de Sitter 3-space. We use techniques of the theory of singularities in order to describe the generic shape of these surfaces and of their singular value sets. We also investigate geometric meanings of those singularities. The results in this paper contribute to the study of the extrinsic geometry of curves in different ambient spaces.