A connection between cut locus, Thom space and Morse-Bott functions

DOI10.2140/AGT.2023.23.4185MaRDI QIDQ6065484zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Somnath Basu, Sachchidanand Prasad

Publication date 11 December 2023

Published in Algebraic \& Geometric Topology (Search for Journal in Brave)

Copyright license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/2011.02972

zbMATH Keywords

cut locusdistance functionMorse-Bott functionThom space

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Semi-analytic sets, subanalytic sets, and generalizations (32B20) Methods of local Riemannian geometry (53B21) Geodesics in global differential geometry (53C22) Homotopy equivalences in algebraic topology (55P10) Algebraic topology on manifolds and differential topology (57R19) Real-valued functions on manifolds (58C05)

Abstract: Associated to every closed, embedded submanifold $N$ in a connected Riemannian manifold $M$, there is the distance function $d_N$ which measures the distance of a point in $M$ from $N$. We analyze the square of this function and show that it is Morse-Bott on the complement of the cut locus $mathrmCu(N)$ of $N$, provided $M$ is complete. Moreover, the gradient flow lines provide a deformation retraction of $M-mathrmCu(N)$ to $N$. If $M$ is a closed manifold, then we prove that the Thom space of the normal bundle of $N$ is homeomorphic to $M/mathrmCu(N)$. We also discuss several interesting results which are either applications of these or related observations regarding the theory of cut locus. These results include, but are not limited to, a computation of the local homology of singular matrices, a classification of the homotopy type of the cut locus of a homology sphere inside a sphere, a deformation of the indefinite unitary group $U(p,q)$ to $U(p)imesU(q)$ and a geometric deformation of $GL(n,mathbbR)$ to $O(n,mathbbR)$ which is different from the Gram-Schmidt retraction.

Review text

Let \(N\subset M\) be a closed submanifold embedded in a connected complete Riemannian manifold \(M\), and \(d_N(x)=d(x,N)\) be the distance function from \(N\); note that this function is not differentiable at \(N\). The authors study the function \(d_N^2\) on the complement of the cut locus of \(N\), \(Cu(N)\): they show that \(d_N^2\) is Morse-Bott, and \(N\) is its critical submanifold. Moreover, \(N\) is a deformation retract of \(M-Cu(N)\), the gradient flow of \(d_N^2\) provides this retraction. In addition, the cut locus \(Cu(N)\) is a strong deformation retract of \(M-N\), and it is a closed set. If \(M\) is a closed manifold, then the Thom space of the normal bundle of \(N\) is homeomorphic to \(M/Cu(N)\). The authors also discuss some interesting related results, among them: the local homology of the space of singular matrices, a classification of the homotopy type of the cut locus of a homology sphere embedded in a sphere, a deformation of the indefinite unitary group \(U(p,q)\) to \(U(p)\times U(q)\) and a geometric deformation of \(GL(n,R)\) to \(O(n,R)\).

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Cited in

(3)

• On the cut locus of submanifolds of a Finsler manifold
• Hausdorff stability of the cut locus under C^2-perturbations of the metric
• Reach of orbits for the isotropy representations of Riemannian symmetric spaces

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