(Local Convexity and Curvature). A surface \(S \subset R^{3}\) is locally convex
at a point \(p \in S\) if there exists a neighborhood \(V \subset S\) of \(p\) such
that \(V\) is contained in one of the closed half-spaces determined by
\(T_{p}(S)\) in \(R^{3}\). If, in addition, \(V\) has only one common point with
\(T_{p}(S)\), then \(S\) is called striclly locally convex at \(p\).
a. Prove that \(S\) is strictly locally convex at \(p\) if the principal
curvatures of \(S\) at \(p\) are nonzero with the same sign (that is, the Gaussian
curvature \(K(p)\) satisfies \(K(p)>0\) ).
b. Prove that if \(S\) is locally convex at \(p\), then the principal curvatures
at \(p\) do not have different signs (thus, \(K(p) \geq 0\) ).
c. To show that \(K \geq 0\) does not imply local convexity, consider the
surface \(f(x, y)=x^{3}\left(1+y^{2}\right)\), defined in the open set
\(U=\left\\{(x, y) \in R^{2} ; y^{2}<\frac{1}{2}\right\\} .\) Show that the
Gaussian curvature of this surface is nonnegative on \(U\) and yet the surface
is not locally convex at \((0,0) \in U\) (a deep theorem, due to \(\mathrm{R}\).
Sacksteder, implies that such an example cannot be extended to the entire
\(R^{2}\) if we insist on keeping the curvature nonnegative; cf. Remark 3 of
Sec. \(5-6\) ).
*d. The example of part \(\mathrm{c}\) is also very special in the following local sense. Let \(p\) be a point in a surface \(S\), and assume that there exists a neighborhood \(V \subset S\) of \(p\) such that the principal curvatures on \(V\) do not have different signs (this does not happen in the example of part c). Prove that \(S\) is locally convex at \(p\).