The reach of subsets of manifolds (Q6074058)

For a compact subset \(\mathcal{S}\) of a Riemannian manifold \(\mathcal{M}\) the medial axis \(\textrm{ax}_{\mathcal{M}}(\mathcal{S})\) is the set of points in \(\mathcal{M}\) which do not have a unique closest point on \(\mathcal{S}.\) The minimum of the injectivity radius of \(\mathcal{M}\) and the distance between the set \(\mathcal{S}\) and its medial axis \(\textrm{ax}_{\mathcal{M}}(\mathcal{S})\) is called the reach \(\textrm{rch}_{\mathcal{M}}(\mathcal{S}).\) The authors discuss related concepts in the literature and derive explicit estimates in terms of Riemannian normal coordinates.