Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 ii Paper 4 25I c i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
Suppose that a connected smooth surface properly contains . Since and have the same dimension, is open in . Choose a point of its relative boundary. Inside a sufficiently small compact normal neighbourhood in , choose and a closest point . A minimizing -geodesic from to stays in before its endpoint, since encountering the complement earlier would contradict the choice of .
The restriction of this curve is consequently a geodesic of with a finite maximal endpoint at . On the other hand, the Gaussian curvature of is the restriction of the smooth Gaussian curvature of , so it remains bounded near . This contradicts condition . Henceso is an inextendible embedded surface. This is the curvature-blowup criterion for inextendibility of a surface.