Geodesic completeness

A Riemannian manifold is geodesically complete when every maximal geodesic is defined for every real affine parameter, equivalently when every exponential map is defined on its entire tangent space.

Pointwise domination of Riemannian metrics gives domination of their distances. A Cauchy sequence for the larger distance is Cauchy for the complete smaller one. Smooth positive metrics induce the same manifold topology, so its limit is also a limit in the larger distance. The Hopf-Rinow theorem turns metric completeness into geodesic completeness. Mere positivity of the second metric, without domination, is insufficient.

Suppose these sets exhaust a manifold, and its Riemannian metric is Euclidean beyond some radius in the end coordinates. A finite-time geodesic has fixed speed and cannot increase its exterior radius faster than that speed. It remains in one compact core enlargement, with velocity in a compact disk bundle. The geodesic equation therefore continues beyond every finite parameter endpoint. The compactness hypothesis is substantive: the open exterior of a closed Euclidean ball, with empty core, is incomplete at its inner boundary despite having a Euclidean metric at infinity.

A Riemannian manifold is geodesically incomplete when some maximal geodesic has a finite endpoint in its affine-parameter interval.

Let $S\subset {\mathbb{R}}^3$ be a smooth surface. Suppose its Gaussian curvature tends to infinity in absolute value along every maximal geodesic with a finite affine-parameter endpoint. Then $S$ is an inextendible embedded surface: a smooth extension would let some geodesic reach the extension boundary in finite time while its curvature remained locally bounded.

The surface of revolutionis geodesically incomplete: a meridian reaches the missing origin in finite length. Its Gaussian curvature, computed using the curvatures of a parametrized surface of revolution, iswhich tends to infinity as $r\downarrow 0$. Every finite-time endpoint of a constant-speed geodesic must approach the origin, the only finite point in the ambient closure missing from $S$, so this surface satisfies the curvature-blowup criterion.

For a connected finite-dimensional Riemannian manifold, completeness of the Riemannian distance, geodesic completeness, and compactness of every closed bounded subset are equivalent. These conditions imply that any two points are joined by a minimizing geodesic. Pairwise existence of minimizing geodesics alone does not imply completeness: an open Euclidean ball is incomplete, yet the line segment between any two of its points stays in the ball and minimizes length.

If the Riemannian exponential map at one point $p$ of a connected finite-dimensional Riemannian manifold is defined on all of $T_{p}M$, every point can be joined to $p$ by a minimizing geodesic. The distance splitting through a small geodesic sphere selects a radial direction attaining $d(p,q)=r+d(\gamma (r),q)$. If this equality stopped before the target, repeat the splitting at its last point. A broken minimizing path cannot have a corner, so the new segment continues the same geodesic, contradicting maximality. This is the minimizing-geodesic lemma used in the radial continuation proof of Hopf-Rinow.

// Target: riemannian-geometry.bigb

Assume geodesic completeness. Minimize the distance to a target over a small compact geodesic sphere about the initial point. The distance splitting through a small geodesic sphere gives an initial direction satisfying $d(p,\gamma (t))+d(\gamma (t),q)=d(p,q)$. If this equality stops before the target, repeat the splitting at the last equality point. The resulting broken path minimizes, so its corner must smooth into the same continuing geodesic, a contradiction. This supplies a minimizing geodesic to every target. Every closed metric ball is then the image under the Riemannian exponential map of a closed tangent ball, hence compact. A Cauchy sequence has a convergent subsequence in such a ball and therefore converges, proving metric completeness without presupposing a global minimizing curve.