Locus of points of the same distance from two diverging lines.

geometryhyperbolic-geometry

I am asked to find the locus of points of the same distance from two diverging lines in the the hyperbolic plane. I am using the Poincare model and am trying to use the unique common perpendicular to the two diverging lines but I am unsure how to proceed.

I know they will be given by the intersection of equidistant curves (i.e. Euclidean circles) to each line. However, I'm still not sure how to piece these all together to get the locus.

Best Answer

If you are using the Poincare unit disk model, and you have the unique common perpendicular to the two h-lines, then along that line will be the center of a circle with inversion in the circle exchanging the two h-lines. The circle itself is an h-line and will be fixed, of course, by the inversion. This circle is the locus of points you are looking for because inversion in an h-line is an h-isometry. This situation is analogous to two parallel lines in the Euclidean plane where the locus of points equidistant from both is another parallel line with reflection in this line exchanging the two original parallel lines.

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