In a recent article [B. Bonnard, J.-B. Caillau, R. Sinclair and M. Tanaka, Ann. Inst. Henri Poincaré, Anal. Non Linéaire 26 (2009) 1081–1098], we relate the computation of the conjugate and cut loci of a family of metrics on two-spheres of revolution whose polar form is g = dϕ2 + m(ϕ)dθ2 to the period mapping of the ϕ-variable. One purpose of this article is to use this relation to evaluate the cut and conjugate loci for a family of metrics arising as a deformation of the round sphere and to determine the convexity properties of the injectivity domains of such metrics. These properties have applications in optimal control of space and quantum mechanics, and in optimal transport.
