Hypersurface Constrained Elasticae in Lorentzian Space Forms

Abstract

We study geodesics in hypersurfaces of a Lorentzian space formM1n+1(c), which are critical curves of theM1n+1(c)-bending energy functional, for variations constrained to lie on the hypersurface. We characterize critical geodesics showing that they live fully immersed in a totally geodesicM13(c)and that they must be of three different types. Finally, we consider the classification of surfaces in the Minkowski 3-space foliated by critical geodesics.