Curvature bounds for warped products of metric spaces (Q1774008)

From the authors' introduction: This paper gives sharp conditions for a warped product of metric spaces to have a given curvature bound in the sense of A. D. Alexandrov. Thus we have a broad new construction of spaces with curvature bounds, either above (CBA) or below (CBB). As applications, we extend the standard cone and suspension constructions of spaces with curvature bounds [see \textit{V. Berestovskii}, Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR 27, 56--59 (1983; Zbl 0534.52005); \textit{Yu. D. Burago, M. Gromov} and \textit{G. Perel'man}, Russ. Math. Surv. 47, No. 2, 1--58 (1992; Zbl 0802.53018)], introduced by V. Berestovskii, from \(1\)-dimensional base to arbitrary base. We also extend Perelman's (CBB) doubling theorem [see \textit{G. Perel'man}, Alexandrov's spaces with curvature bounded from below, II, preprint (1991)] and \textit{Y. G. Reshetnyak's} (CBA) gluing theorem [Mat. Sb. 52(94), 789--798 (1960; Zbl 0101.40201)] from \(0\)-dimensional fiber to arbitrary fiber. The proof studies the analytic behavior of billiard trajectories that approximate warped product geodesics, and the geometry of generalized cone points (vanishing points of the warping function). In Riemannian geometry, warped products are an important source of constructions and counterexamples under curvature constraints [see \textit{P. Petersen}, Riemannian geometry, Graduate Texts in Mathematics. 171. (New York, Springer) (1998; Zbl 0914.53001)], and we expect even more benefits in the singular setting. For instance, the main construction in \textit{F. D. Ancel} and \textit{C. R. Guilbault's} paper [J. Differ. Geom. 45, No. 1, 1--32 (1997; Zbl 0877.53030)], proving that the interiors of compact contractible \(n\)-manifolds \((n\geq 5)\) are hyperbolic, when expressed in terms of warped products becomes an example of our Theorem 1.1. Indeed, this theorem answers negatively a conjecture in the above mentioned paper by Ancel and Guilbault.