Area-Preserving Parameterization: Variational Principle, Gradient Flow, and Discrete Approximation

Abstract: Area-preserving parameterizations are used in applications where relative surface areas must be preserved. We study this problem through the stretch energy. For orientation-preserving diffeomorphisms between compact Riemannian 2-manifolds of equal total area, we show that the stretch energy is characterized by the variance of the area ratio and that its critical points are area-preserving. This variational characterization leads naturally to an $L<sup>2$-gradient flow, which we call the authalic flow. We then develop its simplicial counterpart based on the discrete stretch energy and obtain computational methods for open and closed surfaces of several topological types. To connect the discrete formulation with the smooth theory, we prove the first-order consistency of the stretch energy with respect to mesh refinement and establish a first-order $L<sup>2$ area-distortion bound for discrete global minimizers under the stated geometric approximation assumptions. Numerical experiments on benchmark meshes produce fold-free maps in all reported tests and show competitive area preservation compared with existing methods.