Cut loci of submanifolds in space forms and in the geometries of Möbius and Lie (Q1900027)

For a Riemannian submanifold \(M\) of a Riemannian manifold \(W\), a supporting ball \(B\) is a round (geodesic) ball in \(W\) meeting \(M\) precisely on the frontier \(\partial B\). The set of supporting balls is partially ordered by inclusion and the set \(S_W (M)\) of maximal supporting balls is naturally topologized. The main interest and beauty of this article is the link discovered between the cut locus \(C(M)\) and \(S_W (M)\). Namely, if \(W\) is complete, simply connected, with constant sectional curvature, then \(C(M)\) and \(S_W (M)\) are homeomorphic (each cut point is the center of a maximal supporting ball and conversely). This will allow the study of \(C(M)\) in the realm of Möbius and Lie geometry. As a first application, if \(W= S^n\) and \(M\) is compact, then \(C(M)\) is homeomorphic to its image under any Möbius transformation. Second, the description of \(C(M)\) in terms of maximal supporting balls serves to construct in \(E^n\) hypersurfaces with non-triangulable cut loci. In particular, there exists a Riemannian metric on \(S^2\) such that the cut locus of some point is a tree with uncountably many endpoints and infinitely many branch points. Regarding the link to Lie sphere geometry, it is proven e.g. that two Lie equivalent simple closed curves in \(S^2\) have homeomorphic cut loci, although (as is shown by an example) two compact, Lie equivalent hypersurfaces of \(S^n\) generally have non-homeomorphic cut loci.