Tangent cut loci on surfaces (Q531730)

Let \((M,g)\) be a two-dimensional smooth compact Riemannian manifold, satisfying an appropriate convexity assumption on its tangent focal cut loci. The main result of the paper under review is that all injectivity domains of \(M\) are semiconvex. In particular, this implies that every tangent cut locus of \(M\) is an Alexandrov space, partially answering a question of \textit{J.-I. Itoh} and \textit{M. Tanaka} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 353, No.~1, 21--40 (2001; Zbl 0971.53031)]. The convexity assumption mentioned above is that the (signed) curvature of the tangent focal loci of \((M,g)\) at all focal cut velocities are uniformly bounded from below by a positive constant. This assumption is stable under small perturbations of the metric \(g\) in the \(C^4\)-topology. As a corollary, semiconvexity of injectivity domains is also preserved under such perturbations of \(g\) although the dependence of the cut locus on the metric is highly irregular. The proof of the main result is considerably short since it relies on previous results of the same authors [Calc. Var. Partial Differ. Equ. 39, No.~3--4, 307--332 (2010; Zbl 1203.53034) and ``Nearly round spheres look convex'', Am. J. Math., to appear].