On geodesic envelopes

Abstract: We give a global description of envelopes of geodesic tangents of regular curves in (not necessarily convex) Riemannian surfaces. We prove that such an envelope is the union of the curve itself, its inflectional geodesics and its tangential caustics (formed by the conjugate points to those of the initial curve along the tangent geodesics). Stable singularities of tangential caustics and geodesic envelopes are discussed. We also prove the (global) stability of tangential caustics of close curves in convex closed surfaces under small deformations of the initial curve and of the ambient metric.

Review text

The geodesic envelope of a regular curve in a (complete smooth) Riemannian surface is the envelope of its geodesic tangents. In this paper the author describes geodesic envelopes from a global viewpoint. For this, the tangential caustic of the curve, formed by the conjugate points (of different order) to those of the curve along its tangent geodesics are considered. The author proves that such an envelope is the union of the curve itself, its inflectional geodesics and its tangential caustics. Stable singularities of tangential caustics and geodesic envelopes are discussed. The (global) stability of tangential caustics of closed curves in convex closed surfaces under small deformations of the initial curve and of the ambient metric are proved.

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