Curves in the Minkowski plane and Lorentzian surfaces

Abstract We investigate in this thesis the generic properties of curves in the Minkowski plane R2 1 and of smooth Lorentzian surfaces. The generic properties of curves in R2 1 are obtained by studying the contacts of curves in R2 1 with lines and pseudo-circles. These contacts are captured by the singularities of the families of height and distancesquared functions on the curves. On the other hand, the generic properties of smooth Lorentzian surfaces are obtained by studying certain Binary Differential Equations defined on the surfaces.