Geometric structure and existence of reducible spherical conical metrics

Abstract

A conformal metric ${\rm d}s^{2}$ with finitely many conical singularities of constant Gaussian curvature $K=1$ on a compact Riemann surface is referred to as a spherical conical metric. When the associated monodromy group of ${\rm d}s^{2}$ is diagonalizable, we refer to ${\rm d}s^{2}$ as a reducible spherical conical metric. The simplest case of a reducible spherical conical metric is a `football', which denotes a 2-sphere with a spherical conical metric that has precisely two singularities separated by a distance of $\pi$. This study delves into the intrinsic geometric structure and existence of reducible spherical conical metrics on compact Riemann surfaces. We demonstrate that any such spherical surface can be divided into a finite number of pieces by cutting along a set of suitable geodesics, which connect the conical singularities and some smooth points of the metric. Especially, each piece is isometric to a portion obtained by cutting a football along a geodesic that joins the two conical singularities. As an application, an angle condition for the existence of such a metric is presented. Most notably, our study demonstrates the existence of a reducible spherical conical metric where all the saddle points of a Morse function are located on the same geodesic.