A characterization of sets in $\mathbb{R}^2$ with DC distance function

Abstract

We give a complete characterization of closed sets $F \subset \mathbb{R}^2$ whose distance function $d_F:= \mathrm{dist}(\cdot,F)$ is DC (i.e., is the difference of two convex functions on $\mathbb{R}^2$). Using this characterization, a number of properties of such sets is proved.