Catenaries and singular minimal surfaces in the simply isotropic space

Abstract

This paper investigates the hanging chain problem in the simply isotropic plane as well as its 2-dimensional analog in the simply isotropic space. The simply isotropic plane and space are two- and three-dimensional geometries equipped with a degenerate metric whose kernel has dimension 1. Although the metric is degenerate, the hanging chain and hanging surface problems are well-posed if we employ the relative arc length and relative area to measure the weight. Here, the concepts of relative arc length and relative area emerge by seeing the simply isotropic geometry as a relative geometry. In addition to characterizing the simply isotropic catenary, i.e., the solutions of the hanging chain problem, we also prove that it is the generating curve of a minimal surface of revolution in the simply isotropic space. Finally, we obtain the 2-dimensional analog of the catenary, the so-called singular minimal surfaces, and determine the shape of a hanging surface of revolution in the simply isotropic space.