The structure of continuous rigid functions of two variables

Abstract

A function $f:\RR^n \to \RR$ is called \emph{vertically rigid} if $graph(cf)$ is isometric to $graph(f)$ for all $c\ne 0$. We settled Janković's conjecture in a separate paper by showing that a continuous function $f:\RR \to \RR$ is vertically rigid if and only if it is of the form $a+bx$ or $a+b{e}^{kx}$ ($a,b,k \in \RR$). Now we prove that a continuous function $f:\RR^2 \to \RR$ is vertically rigid if and only if after a suitable rotation around the z-axis $f(x,y)$ is of the form $a+bx+dy$, $a+s(y)e^{kx}$ or $a+b{e}^{kx}+dy$ ($a,b,d,k \in \RR$, $k\ne 0$, $s : \RR \to \RR$ continuous). The problem remains open in higher dimensions.