Singularities of tangent surfaces to generic space curves

Abstract

We give the complete solution to the local diffeomorphism classification problem of generic singularities which appear in tangent surfaces, in as wider situations as possible. We interpret tangent geodesics as tangent lines whenever a (semi-)Riemannian metric, or, more generally, an affine connection is given in an ambient space of arbitrary dimension. Then, given an immersed curve, we define the tangent surface as the ruled surface by tangent geodesics to the curve. We apply the characterization of frontal singularities found by Kokubu, Rossman, Saji, Umehara, Yamada, and Fujimori, Saji, Umehara, Yamada, and found by the first author related to the procedure of openings of singularities.