Radial distance in a normal neighbourhood ($r(q)=|{\exp }_p^{-1}(q)|$)

In a normal neighbourhood $U={\exp }_p(V)$ with $V$ star-shaped, define $r(q)=|{\exp }_p^{-1}(q)|$. Away from $p$, the Gauss lemma gives $\nabla r=(d{\exp }_p{)}_v(v/|v|)$ for $v={\exp }_p^{-1}(q)$. Thus $|\nabla r|=1$ and this unit vector field is tangent to unit-speed radial geodesics. The function $r$ is not smooth at $p$, but $r^2/2$ is smooth and $\nabla (r^2/2)=(d{\exp }_p{)}_{v}v$ extends by zero. On a sufficiently small normal ball, $r$ equals the Riemannian distance from $p$.

// Target: riemannian-geometry.bigb

The unit radial vector field is $E=\nabla r$ on the punctured normal neighbourhood, where $r$ is the radial distance in a normal neighbourhood. Along ${\gamma }_u(t)={\exp }_p(tu)$ with $|u|=1$, it satisfies $E({\gamma }_u(t))={\dot{\gamma }}_u(t)$. The scaled radial field $W=rE=\nabla (r^2/2)$ is smooth at the centre and vanishes there. These conventions have different associated radial functions.

// Target: riemannian-geometry.bigb