Skip to main content

All Questions

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
0 votes
0 answers
33 views

Request for resources on directional derivative of the Riemannian distance function, and Berger's lemma about geodesics realizing the diameter

I've been recently interested in directional derivatives of the Riemannian distance function, and I came across this question, and its answer by Sergei Ivanov, where he stated an important result: (I ...
Learning math's user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
78 views

Is there a generalization of the Diameter Sphere Theorem to orbifolds?

The Diameter Sphere Theorem of Grove and Shiohama asserts that if $M$ is a compact Riemannian manifold with sectional curvature bounded from bellow by 1 and diameter greater than $\pi/2$, then $M$ is ...
zed from zor's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
207 views

Coarse embeddings and Gromov products in (Gromov) hyperbolic spaces

I am new into geometric group theory and I have recently started reading the book "Sur les Groupes Hyperboliques d’après Mikhael Gromov" by Ghys and de la Harpe. The following inequality ...
Steve's user avatar
  • 101
5 votes
1 answer
155 views

Variants of the Bonk-Schramm embedding

Recently I heard about the following embedding theorem of Bonk and Schramm: every Gromov hyperbolic geodesic metric space with "bounded growth" is roughly similar to a convex subset of $\...
Takao Hishikori's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
530 views

Geodesic distance on $\mathrm{SO}(n)$

$\DeclareMathOperator\SO{SO}$Recently I came across this old MSE post or this paper (w.o. proof) discussing the geodesic distance on $\SO(n)$ when it is equipped with the left-invariant Riemannian ...
Math_Newbie's user avatar
11 votes
3 answers
1k views

What is the minimum-curvature curve interpolating a given set of points in the plane?

We are given a set $X$ of $n\ge 3$ points in $\mathbb{R}^2$, belonging to the boundary of the convex hull of $X$ itself. Let $\Gamma(X)$ be the set of all convex, simple closed curves in $\mathbb{R}^2$...
Penelope Benenati's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
65 views

Connection between a function and its usage in geometry [closed]

I know nothing about geometry, but I found a function which seems to have something to do with geometry. This function is, $$f(x,y,z) = \dfrac{(x,y,z)}{\sqrt{1 + x^2 + y^2 + z^2}}$$ where $x,y,z$ is ...
En Poverty's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
186 views

Ends of a negatively curved Riemannian manifold

Let $M$ be a complete Riemannian manifold. Let us use the standard definition of "end", for example, as in this article. If $M$ has non-negative Ricci curvature, it is well-known that it has ...
Math_Learner's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
425 views

Compact connected Riemannian manifolds are Ahlfors regular metric space

Let $(M,g)$ be a compact connected $n$-dimensional Riemannian manifold; let $(X,d)$ denote its associated metric (length) space. A comment on the original formulation of this post mentioned that $(X,...
ABIM's user avatar
  • 5,405
1 vote
0 answers
101 views

Actions of finite groups on compact symmetric spaces

I am interested in series of finite subgroups of the classical compact simple Lie groups which have big orbits on compact symmetric spaces and where the double coset space has some nice explicit ...
Vít Tuček's user avatar
  • 8,597
7 votes
2 answers
359 views

Cone unfolding of space curves

There is a natural length-preserving operation which transforms any rectifiable space curve $\gamma\colon [a,b]\to R^n$ into a planar curve $\tilde\gamma \colon [a,b]\to R^2$. This operation, which ...
Mohammad Ghomi's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
317 views

Quasi-isometric embedding of graphs in non-compact riemannian surfaces

Given a complete riemannian surface $(S,m)$, where $S$ is homeomorphic to $\mathbb{R}^2$, I would like to find a weighted graph $G$ (which means a graph with real non-negative weights on the edges), ...
Louis Esperet's user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
272 views

When do surfaces in $\mathbb{R}^4$ intersect all their translations in one direction?

I am looking for research or references on the following problem. Let $S$ be a smoothly embedded connected surface in $\mathbb{R}^4$, with or without boundary. Fix some axis in $\mathbb{R}^4$, let $d ...
Paul Cusson's user avatar
  • 1,763
7 votes
1 answer
483 views

Furthest distance half the diameter?

Let $S$ be the surface of a convex body, polyhedral or smooth, embedded in $\mathbb{R}^3$. For a point $x \in S$, let $F(x)$ be the set of furthest points from $x$, measured by shortest paths on the ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
159 views

Upper bound on the geodesic distance in a Lipschitz domain

I was wondering if the following result is true. If yes, could you please suggest a reference. The result seems to have been used at several papers without quoting any reference. Is the proof ...
Tatin's user avatar
  • 895
14 votes
4 answers
963 views

Steiner's inequality reference request

I remember seeing somewhere that for every connected compact set $\Omega$ in $\mathbb{R}^2$ with piecewise $C^1$ boundary we have $$A(\Omega_r)\leq A(\Omega)+L(\partial \Omega)r+ \pi r^2,$$ where $$\...
Michael's user avatar
  • 295
1 vote
0 answers
162 views

Gromov-Hausdorff relative compactness without curvature restrictions

A famous theorem of Gromov says that the set of compact Riemannian manifolds with $Ric \geq c$ and $\text{diam} \leq D$ is relatively compact in the Gromov-Hausdorff metric. Chapter 10 of the book by ...
SMS's user avatar
  • 1,407
17 votes
5 answers
883 views

Rigidity of convex polyhedrons in $\mathbb R^3$ with faces removed

Take a convex polyhedron $P$ in $\mathbb R^3$ and remove all the faces, i.e. leave only the edges. Call this graph $E$. Let us now try to continuously deform $E$ in $\mathbb R^3$ so that all the edges ...
aglearner's user avatar
  • 14.3k
3 votes
1 answer
704 views

Bishop-Gromov volume comparison on manifolds with negligible negative Ricci curvature

Let us consider a complete Riemannian manifold $M$ of dimension $n$ with $Ric \geq 0$. Then the Bishop-Gromov volume comparison theorem says that for any $p \in M$, the function $$ \frac{\text{Vol}(B(...
user116108's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
400 views

Multidimensional gluing theorem for Riemannian manifolds

I would like to understand whether the following multidimensional (partial) generalization of the A.D. Alexandrov gluing theorem is true and, if yes, whether there is a reference. (The original ...
asv's user avatar
  • 21.8k
22 votes
2 answers
1k views

Why doesn't this construction of the tangent space work for non-Riemannian metric manifolds?

In the 1957 paper, On the differentiability of isometries, Richard S. Palais gives a way to construct the tangent spaces of a Riemannian manifold using only its metric space structure (Theorem, p.1). ...
Chill2Macht's user avatar
  • 2,680
5 votes
0 answers
1k views

Reach of manifold vs. $C^k$-manifold

The reach $\tau_M$ of a manifold $M$ is the largest number such that any point at distance less than $\tau_M$ from $M$ has a unique nearest point on $M$. This concept seems quite related to the local ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
381 views

Sources for Alexandrov surfaces

There are two distinct notions in differential geometry associated with A. D. Alexandrov: (1) Alexandrov spaces of courvature bounded from below; (2) Alexandrov surfaces of bounded total curvature (...
Mikhail Katz's user avatar
  • 16.6k
0 votes
0 answers
61 views

Heat trace asymptotic coefficients for conformal metrics $\widetilde{g}=e^{f}g$ surfaces

As is well known $\sum e^{-\lambda_{k}t}\approx(4\pi t)^{dim(M)/2}\sum a_{j}t^{j}$, where $a_{j}$ are geometric properties of manifold M. Moreover, the arbitrary order coefficients don't have closed ...
Thomas Kojar's user avatar
  • 5,474
14 votes
3 answers
963 views

Conjugate points on cut locus

Let $M$ be a Riemannian with nonempty boundary $\partial M$. Define multiplicity of $x\in M$ as the number of minimizing geodesics from $x$ to $\partial M$. The following fact seems to be standard: ...
Anton Petrunin's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
127 views

Functional inequality under mean curvature flow

Let $\Sigma$ be a hypersurface in $\mathbb R^n$ and $\Sigma_t$ be a variation of $\Sigma$ under the mean curvature flow under an extra condition that ${\rm vol}_{n-1}(\Sigma)={\rm vol}_{n-1}(\Sigma_t)$...
Math101's user avatar
  • 143
8 votes
1 answer
682 views

Geometry of convex sets in Riemannian manifolds

Let $M$ be a smooth Riemannian manifold without boundary. Let $X\subset M$ be a closed subset which is a smooth submanifold with boundary, $\dim X=\dim M$. Assume that $X$ is locally convex, i.e. any ...
asv's user avatar
  • 21.8k
5 votes
0 answers
391 views

Gage-Grayson-Hamilton curve-shortening flow, at an angle

The Gage-Grayson-Hamilton curve-shortening flows along the normal to the curve:                     &...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
328 views

Is a space with p-norm a Finsler manifold?

Suppose $\mathbb{R}^n$ is equipped with the p-norm $\left\Vert x \right\Vert_p$. Let $x\in \mathbb{R}^n$ and let $y$ be in a neighborhood of $x$. The distance between $x$ and $y$ can be defined as $\...
Klock's user avatar
  • 51
1 vote
1 answer
145 views

Continuity of Busemann-Hausdorff area density

I am trying to find out why the Busemann-Hausdorff area density as defined by Burago and Ivanov is continuous. Here, $GC_m(V)\subset \Lambda^m(V)$ denotes the simple $m$-vectors in an $n$-dimensional ...
Sven Pistre's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
205 views

Reference: Finsler Derivative?

On the wikipedia page "Generalizations of derivative" the author mentions: " in Finsler geometry, one studies spaces which look locally like Banach spaces. Thus one might want a derivative with some ...
ABIM's user avatar
  • 5,405
8 votes
1 answer
911 views

Avoiding mean-curvature flow dumbbell neck-pinch by inflating a surface

It is well known that Grayson's dumbbell neck-pinch1,2 separates into disconnected pieces under mean curvature flow:                     Image ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
232 views

Shortest paths in Alexandrov spaces

Let $X$ be an Alexandrov space with curvature bounded from below (if necessary, $X$ might be assumed to be finite dimensional or even compact). Question 1. Is it true that every point of $X$ has a ...
asv's user avatar
  • 21.8k
5 votes
1 answer
906 views

Boundaries of relatively hyperbolic groups

When the interior of an n-manifold $M$ has a pinched negative curvature metric of finite volume, then its fundamental group $\Gamma=\pi_1M$ is relatively hyperbolic relative to the parabolic groups $\...
ThiKu's user avatar
  • 10.4k
9 votes
1 answer
3k views

Oloid and sphericon: rolling develops entire surface

Wikipedia says that, "The oloid is one of the only known objects, along with some members of the sphericon family, that while rolling, develops its entire surface." Below are illustrations of ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
15 votes
0 answers
382 views

Has Cheeger's 'de Rham cohomology' of metric measure spaces been studied beyond its definition?

In J. Cheeger's 'Differentiability of Lipschitz Functions on Metric Measure Spaces' (Geometric and Functional Analysis, 1999, Vol. 9 pp 428-517, see here), a 'de Rham cohomology group' $H_{dR}^1(Z,\mu)...
user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
292 views

Existence of Simple Closed Straightest Geodesics

There are at least three distinct simple closed quasigeodesics on convex polyhedra [Mat. Sb. (N.S.), 1949, 25(67) :2, 275–306 Quasi-geodesic lines on a convex surface Pogorelov]. Is the same true ...
bjwbell's user avatar
  • 133
16 votes
2 answers
2k views

There are two points on the Earth's surface that ... ?

At every moment in time, there are two points on the Earth's surface that have the same $\lbrace x, y, z, ... \rbrace$...? What is the strongest, most impressive statement one can make here? The ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
14 votes
1 answer
1k views

Egg-ovoid rolling down an inclined plane

I am seeking a mathematical analysis of an egg-ovoid rolling down an inclined plane, for pedagogical reasons. It is well-known folk lore that the shape of an egg prevents it from rolling away from ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
15 votes
3 answers
4k views

About MF Atiyah and R Bott's 1983 paper

I am a theoretical physics major student working on string theory. I want to understand the work of MF Atiyah and R Bott, "The Yang-Mills equations over riemann surfaces" . What kinds of mathematical ...
Craig Thone's user avatar
24 votes
5 answers
4k views

Weitzenböck Identities

I asked this question at Maths Stack Exchange, but I haven't received any replies yet (I'm not sure how long I should wait before it is acceptable to ask here, assuming there is such a period of time)....
Michael Albanese's user avatar
19 votes
1 answer
2k views

Does this Banach manifold admit a Riemannian metric?

First, the question; after, the motivation. Consider 27.6 (pdf pp. 262-263) in The convenient setting of global analysis (AMS, 1997), and, in particular, the example given at the end of it, which ...
Benjamin Dickman's user avatar
17 votes
1 answer
526 views

Is $\partial X$ a sphere for $X$ a complete CAT$(0)$ space?

Let $X$ be a complete CAT$(0)$ metric space, and $\partial X$ its boundary. One way to define $\partial X$ is as the equivalence class of geodesic rays $\gamma(t), \gamma'(t)$ that remain within a ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
24 votes
1 answer
1k views

Non-regular Connected Hausdorff Banach Manifold

After reading this MO post, I am wondering: Is every (connected) Hausdorff Banach manifold a regular space? Though unjustified, page 53 of this paper nonchalantly states: "Note that a Hausdorff ...
Benjamin Dickman's user avatar
10 votes
1 answer
2k views

Curves of constant curvature on an ellipsoid

It is not difficult to see that the curves of constant geodesic curvature on a geometric sphere are all circles: simple, closed curves that are geometric circles lying in a plane:    &...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
371 views

Simple development of simple curve on a cone

Let $\Lambda$ be a cone with apex $a$ and apex angle $\alpha$. Draw a simple (non-self-intersecting) curve $C=(x,y)$ on $\Lambda$, and then develop it to a curve $\overline{C}$ on a plane by rolling $...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
1k views

"The famous Lusternik-Schnirelmann Theorem of the Three Closed Geodesics"

The title is a quote from p.256 of Wilhelm Klingenberg's 1995 Riemannian Geometry (Google Books link): Every surface homeomorphic to a sphere $\mathbb{S}^2$ has three distinct, simple, closed ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
308 views

Connecting tangents of convex curves: at some point orthogonal?

Let $a(t)$ and $b(t)$ be two smooth, nested convex curves in the plane, $t\in[0,1]$:       Suppose the parametrization of $a()$ and $b()$ is such that $\dot{a}(t)$ is ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
350 views

Areas dominated by two points on a surface: Equal?

Let $S$ be a smooth compact surface in $\mathbb{R}^3$, with two distinct, distinguished points $a,b \in S$. Let $R(a)$ be all the points of $S$ closer to $a$ than to $b$, and $R(b)$ all the points of ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
28 votes
2 answers
3k views

Probing a manifold with geodesics

Supposed you stand at a point $p \in M$ on a smooth 2-manifold $M$ embedded in $\mathbb{R}^3$. You do not know anything about $M$. You shoot off a geodesic $\gamma$ in some direction $u$, and learn ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar