Geodesic spheres in Nil geometry, distorted by the anisotropy of the Heisenberg group
This program renders geodesic spheres in Nil geometry, one of the eight Thurston model geometries for 3-manifolds. Nil is the geometry of the Heisenberg group, a non-abelian Lie group whose geodesics twist as they propagate due to the non-commutativity of the group operation. Geodesic spheres in Nil are not round: they deform in characteristic ways that reflect the anisotropy of the geometry, becoming elongated along the fiber direction at larger radii.
Controls: Click and drag to orbit, scroll to zoom.
