Constrained elastic curves and surfaces with spherical curvature lines

Abstract: In this paper we consider surfaces with one or two families of spherical curvature lines. We show that every surface with a family of spherical curvature lines can locally be generated by a pair of initial data: a suitable curve of Lie sphere transformations and a spherical Legendre curve. We then provide conditions on the initial data for which such a surface is Lie applicable, an integrable class of surfaces that includes cmc and pseudospherical surfaces. In particular we show that a Lie applicable surface with exactly one family of spherical curvature lines must be generated by the lift of a constrained elastic curve in some space form. In view of this goal, we give a Lie sphere geometric characterisation of constrained elastic curves via polynomial conserved quantities of a certain family of connections.