New algebraic and geometric characterizations of planar quintic Pythagorean-hodograph curves

The aim of this work is to provide new characterizations of planar quintic Pythagorean-hodograph curves. The first two are algebraic and consist of two and three equations, respectively, in terms of the edges of the Bézier control polygon as complex numbers. These equations are symmetric with respect to the edge indices and cover curves with generic as well as degenerate control polygons. The last two characterizations are geometric and rely both on just two auxiliary points outside the control polygon. One requires two (possibly degenerate) quadrilaterals to be similar, and the other highlights two families of three similar triangles. All characterizations are a step forward with respect to the state of the art, and they can be linked to the well-established counterparts for planar cubic Pythagorean-hodograph curves. The key ingredient for proving the aforementioned results is a novel general expression for the hodograph of the curve.