On isocline lines for functions and convex stratifications of two variables

Abstract

Let the isoclines of a function u be the level lines of the function ¼ arg(Du). Formulas for the curvature and the length of isocline lines in terms of the curvatures k, j of the level curves and of the steepest descent lines of u are given. The special case when all isoclines are straight lines is studied: in this case the steepest descent lines bend proportionally to the level lines; the support function of the level lines is linear function on the isoclines parameterized by the level values, possibly changing them. This characterization gives a new proof of a property of the developable surfaces found in [A. Fialkow, Geometric characterization of invariant partial differential equations, Amer. J. Math. 59(4) (1937), pp. 833-844]. When u is in the class of quasi convex functions, the L p norm of the length function I of the isoclines has minimizers with isoclines straight lines; the same occurs for other functionals on u depending on k, j. For a strictly regular quasi convex function isoclines may have arbitrarily large length and arbitrarily large L 1 norm of I .