Convex domains of Finsler and Riemannian manifolds (Q629852)

Let \( \partial D \) be a smooth hypersurface which bounds a domain in a Riemannian or a Finslerian manifold \(D\). The surface \(\partial D \) is {\parindent6.5mm \begin{itemize}\item[(1)] infinitesimally convex if its second fundamental form, with respect to the inner normal, is positive semi-definite at any \(p\in \partial D\); \item[(2)] locally convex if the exponential of the tangent space \(T_p\partial D\) restricted to some neighborhood of \(0\) does not intersect \(D\), \item[(3)] geometrically convex if, for any points \(p,q \in D\), the range of any geodesic connecting them belongs to \(D\) . \end{itemize}} The authors prove that all these notions of convexity are equivalent in the category of Finsler manifolds and under assumptions on differentiability weaker than in Bishop's Theorem from Riemannian geometry. Their technique and results are new even for the Riemannian setting and yield consequences on the multiplicity of connecting geodesics in \(D\), provided it is convex.