Surfaces of constant principal-curvatures ratio in isotropic geometry

Abstract

We study surfaces with a constant ratio of principal curvatures in Euclidean and isotropic geometries and characterize rotational, channel, ruled, helical, and translational surfaces of this kind under some technical restrictions (the latter two cases only in isotropic geometry). We use the interlacing of various methods of differential geometry, including line geometry and Lie sphere geometry, ordinary differential equations, and elementary algebraic geometry.