Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-geometry-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2008/a/3/iii/solution

Let be reflection in the plane. Choose a point of the regular intersection curve and a unit tangent vector to it. Both the point and are fixed by . The unique local geodesic with these initial data is carried by the surface isometry to another geodesic with the same initial data. Uniqueness therefore gives . Its image lies in the fixed-point set of the reflection, namely the plane, hence locally in the intersection curve. Thus the intersection curve is a geodesic, when parametrized by arclength.

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