Distance from a Finsler Submanifold to its Cut Locus and the Existence of a Tubular Neighborhood

Abstract: In this article we prove that for a closed, not necessarily compact, submanifold $N$ of a possibly non-complete Finsler manifold $(M, F)$, the cut time map is always positive. As a consequence, we prove the existence of a tubular neighborhood of such a submanifold. When $N$ is compact, it then follows that there exists an $\epsilon > 0$ such that the distance between $N$ and its cut locus $\mathrm{Cu}(N)$ is at least $\epsilon$. This was originally proved by B. Alves and M. A. Javaloyes (Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 2019). We have given an alternative, rather geometric proof of the same, which is novel even in the Riemannian setup. We also obtain easier proofs of some results from N. Innami et al. (Trans. Amer. Math. Soc., 2019), under weaker hypothesis.