308 B. SOME RESULTS IN COMPARISON GEOMETRY
In fact, Ts E (0, £), because a (0), a(£) E JH['Y. Thus we can apply the first
variation formula to conclude that a (Ts) l_ /3s (0) at a (Ts) = f3s (0). Now
parallel translate the unit vector a (Ts) to get a unit vector field U along f3s,
and define the variation vector field
0 :S a :S L (f3s).
Note that V is the Jacobi field of a family of geodesics joining a to / (s);
in particular, v (f3s (0)) = a (Ts) and v (f3s (£s)) = o. Because f3s is minimal
among all geodesics joining a to r ( s), applying the second variation formula
with S ~ (f3s)* (d/da) yields
f L(f3s) ( 2 )
0 :S lo IV sVI - (R (S, V) V, S) da.
Since \7 sV = -L(1s) U, we have
1
L(f3s) 2 1 1L(f3s) 1
IVsVI da= 2 da= L(f3).
o L(f3s) o s
But since sect (g) > 0, there is E > 0 depending only on a c Mn such that
f L~) fl
lo (R (S, V) V, S) da ?_lo (R (S, V) V, S) da
fl (L (f3s) - a)2 d
- E lo L (f3s) a
L (f3s) - 1
?_E L(f3s).
Hence JH['Y can fail to be totally convex only if
1 L (f3s) - 1
O :S L (f3s) - E L (f3s) '
which is equivalent to the condition
E(L (f3s) - 1) :S 1
holding for all s ?_ so > 0. Since L (f3s) ---+ oo as s ---+ oo, this is impossible.
D
PROOF OF PROPOSITION B.54 IN THE CASE sect (g) ?_ o. If JH['Y is not
totally convex, there are x, y E JH['Y and a unit-speed geodesic a : [O, £] ---+Mn
such that a (0) = x and a(£) = y, but a</:. JH['Y. As in the proof above, there
is so> 0 such that anB(r(s),s) I- 0 for alls?_ so. Since a([O,£]) is
compact, there are for any s ?_ so some Ts E [O, £] and a minimal geodesic
f3s,Ts : [O, £s,Tsl ---+ Mn such that f3s,Ts (0) = a (Ts) and f3s,Ts (£s,T.) = I (s ),
where £s,Ts ~ L (f3s, 7 .) = d (a,/ (s)) < s. Define