Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 January 2016
We construct distinctive surfaces of revolution with finite total curvature whose Gauss curvatures are not bounded. Such a surface of revolution is employed as a reference surface of comparison theorems in radial curvature geometry. Moreover, we prove that a complete noncompact Riemannian manifold M is homeomorphic to the interior of a compact manifold with boundary if the manifold M is not less curved than a noncompact model surface of revolution and if the total curvature of the model surface is finite and less than 2π. By the first result mentioned above, the second result covers a much wider class of manifolds than that of complete noncompact Riemannian manifolds whose sectional curvatures are bounded from below by a constant.