Mathematical theory of medial axis transform (Q1816509)

The medial axis of a plane domain is defined to be the set of the centers of the maximal inscribed disks. It is essentially the set of cut loci of the inward unit normal bundle of the boundary. We prove that if a plane domain has a finite number of boundary curves each of which consists of a finite number of real analytic pieces, then the medial axis is a connected geometric graph in \(\mathbb{R}^2\) with finitely many vertices and edges, and each edge is a real analytic curve which can be extended in the \(C^1\) manner at the end vertices. We clarify the relation between the vertex degree and the local geometry of the domain. We also analyze various continuity and regularity results in detail and show that the medial axis is a strong deformation retract of the domain which means in the practical sense that it retains all the topological information of the domain. We also obtain parallel results for the medial axis transform.