Local differential geometry of cuspidal edge and swallowtail

Abstract

We investigate the local differential geometric invariants of cuspidal edge and swallowtail from the view point of singularity theory. We introduce finite type invariants of such singularities (see Remark 1.5 and Theorem 2.11) based on certain normal forms for cuspidal edge and swallowtail. Then we discuss several geometric aspects based on our normal form. We also present several asymptotic formulas concerning our invariants with respect to Gauss curvature and mean curvature.