Mean curvature and closed geodesics in convex hypersurfaces

Abstract

We give a sharp lower bound for the total mean curvature of a convex hypersurface in Euclidean space in terms of the length of a shortest nontrivial closed geodesic, generalizing a result of Álvarez Paiva for convex surfaces. This result is based on a sharp lower bound for the mean width of a convex hypersurface in terms of its Birkhoff invariant, which gives sharp lower bounds for a broader array of total curvature functionals. We also characterize spheres as the unique convex hypersurfaces whose planar sections containing chords of maximal length are all as long as possible.

15 pages; minor edits throughout, including to the references