Riemannian simplices and triangulations (Q897067)

The authors use \textit{H. Karcher}'s means [Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 30, 509--541 (1977; Zbl 0354.57005)] to give an intrinsic definition of geometric simplices in Riemannian manifolds of arbitrary finite dimension. These simplices are used to obtain criteria for trinagulated compact Riemannian manifols. In a Riemannian manifold \(M\), an open geodesic ball of radius \(r\) centred at \(x\in M\) is the set \(B_M(x;r)\) of all points in \(M\) whose geodesic distance from \(x\) is less than \(r\). The injectivity radius at \(x\), denoted \(\iota(x)\), is the supremum of the radii \(r\) for which \(exp_x\) restricts to a diffeomorphism between the Euclidean ball of radius \(r\) centred at \(0\in T_xM\), and \(B_M(x;r)\). The injectivity radius of \(M\) is the infimum of \(\iota(x)\) over all \(x\in M\), and it is denoted \(\iota_M\). If \(M\) is a Riemannian manifold with sectional curvature \(K\) bounded by \(|K|\leq \Lambda\), denote \(\rho_0=\min\{\frac{\iota_M}{2},\frac{\pi}{4\sqrt{\Lambda}}\}\). Then for a finite set \(\{p_0,\dots,p_j\}\subset B\subset M\), where \(B\) is open and its closure \(\overline{B}\) is convex, the function \(\mathcal{E}_\lambda:\overline{B}\rightarrow \mathbb{R}\) is defined by \(\mathcal{E}_\lambda(x)=\frac{1}{2}\sum_i\lambda_i d_M(x,p_i)^2\), where \(\lambda_i\geq 0\) with \(\sum_i \lambda_i=1\), and \(d_M\) is the geodesic distance function on \(M\). The centre mass construction is based on minimising the function \(\mathcal{E}_\lambda\) and Karcher proved [loc. cit.] that the minima of \(\mathcal{E}_\lambda\) must lie in the interior of \(\overline{B}\), i.e., in \(B\) itself. By \(\Delta^j\) is denoted the standard Euclidean \(j\)-simplex, given by the barycentric coordinates \(\lambda=\{\lambda_0,\dots,\lambda_j\}\in \mathbb{R}^{j+1}\). Definition (Riemannian simplex). If a finite set \(\sigma^j\sigma=\{p_0,\dots,p_j\}\subset M\) in an \(n\)-manifold is contained in an open geodesic ball \(B_\rho\) whose radius, \(\rho\), satisfies the inequality \(\rho<\rho_0\), then \(\sigma^j\) is the set of vertices of a geometric Riemannian simplex, denoted \(\sigma_M^j\), and defined to be the image of the map \(\mathcal{B}_{\sigma^j}:\Delta^j\rightarrow M\), \(\lambda\rightarrow \mathop{\mathrm{argmin}}_{x\in \overline{B}_\rho}\mathcal{E}_\lambda(x)\). The simplex \(\sigma_M^j\) is said to be non-degenerate if \(\mathcal{B}_{\sigma^j}\) is a smooth embedding; otherwise it is degenerate. A first main result is given by the following theorem. Theorem 1 (Non-degeneracy criteria). Suppose \(M\) is a Riemannian manifold with sectional curvature \(K\) bounded by \(|K|\leq \Lambda\), and \(\sigma_M\) is a Riemannian simplex, with \(\sigma_M\subset B_\rho\subset M\), where \(B_\rho\) is an open geodesic ball of radius \(\rho\) with \(\rho<\rho_0\). Then \(\sigma_M\) is non-degenerate if there is a point \(p\in B_\rho\) such that the lifted Euclidean simplex \(\sigma(p)\) has thickness satisfying \( t(\sigma(p))>10\sqrt{\Lambda}L(\sigma_M)\), where \(L(\sigma_M)\) is the geodesic length of the longest edge in \(\sigma_M\). (And the thickness is essentially the ratio of the smallest altitude to the longest edge length of the simplex). From now on a manifold is always compact and without boundary. A simplicial complex \(\mathcal{A}\) is a manifold simplicial complex if \(|\mathcal{A}|\) is a topological manifold. A \textit{triangulation} of a manifold \(M\) is a homeomorphism \(H:|\mathcal{A}|\rightarrow M\), where \(\mathcal{A}\) is a simplicial complex. If \(M\) is a differentiable manifold, then \(H\) is a \textit{smooth triangulation} if it is smooth on \(\mathcal{A}\), i.e., the restriction of \(H\) to any simplex is smooth. Theorem 2 (Triangulation criteria). Suppose \(M\) is a compact \(n\)-dimensional Riemannian manifold with sectional curvature \(K\) bounded by \(|K|\leq \Lambda\), and \(\mathcal{A}\) is an abstract simplicial complex with finite vertex set \(S\subset M\). Define a quality parameter \(t_0>0\), and let \[ h=\min\{\frac{\iota_M}{4},\frac{\sqrt{n}t_0}{6\sqrt{\Lambda}}\}\tag{\(*\)} \] If 1. For every \(p\in S\), the vertices of \(\underline{St}(p)\) are contained in \(B_M(p;h)\), and the balls \(\{B_M(p;h)\}_{p\in S}\) cover \(M\). 2. For every \(p\in S\), the restriction of the inverse of the exponential map \(exp_p^{-1}\) to the vertices of \(\underline{St}(p)\subset \mathcal{A}\) defines a piecewise linear embedding of \(|\underline{St}(p)|\) into \(T_pM\), realising \(\underline{St}(p)\) as full star such that every simplex \(\sigma(p)\) has thickness \(t(\sigma(p))\geq t_0\). Then \(\mathcal{A}\) triangulates \(M\), and the triangulation is given by the barycentric coordinate map on each simplex. The third main result of the article refers to the metric distorsion by a triangulation. Theorem 3 (Metric distorsion). If the requirements of Theorem 2 are satisfied, with the scale parameter \((\ast)\) replaced by \[ h=\min\{\frac{\iota_M}{4},\frac{t_0}{6\sqrt{\Lambda}}\}, \] then \(\mathcal{A}\) is naturally equipped with a piecewise flat metric \(d_{\mathcal{A}}\) defined by assigning to each edge the geodesic distance in \(M\) between its endpoints. If \(H:|\mathcal{A}|\rightarrow M\) is the triangulation defined by the barycentric coordinate map in this case, then the metric distorsion induced by \(H\) is quantified as \[ |d_M(H(x),H(y))-d_{\mathcal{A}}(x,y)|\leq\frac{50\Lambda h^2}{t_0^2}d_{\mathcal{A}}(x,y), \] for all \(x,y\in |\mathcal{A}|\). In the end the authors deal with the formulation of the criteria of these three theorems in terms of the thickness of the Euclidean simplices defined by the geodesic edge lengths of the Riemannian simplices ``rather than the Euclidean simplices we find in the tangent spaces''. ``In Appendix 1 we briefly mention this alternative formulation of our results. We also compare the thickness quality measure for simplices with a commonly used volumetric quality measure which we call fatness''. In Appendix 2, entitled ``The Toponogov point of view'', the authors discuss a different approach to finding conditions that guarantee that a Riemannian simplex is non-degenerate, that it is diffeomorphic to the standard simplex. This approach is based on the Toponogov comparison theorem, instead of Rauch's theorem used in the first approach.