Distance to the line in the Heston model

The main object of study in the paper is the distance from a point to a line in the Riemannian manifold associated with the Heston model. We reduce the problem of computing such a distance to certain minimization problems for functions of one variable over finite intervals. One of the main ideas in this paper is to use a new system of coordinates in the Heston manifold and the level sets associated with this system. In the case of a vertical line, the formulas for the distance to the line are rather simple. For slanted lines, the formulas are more complicated, and a more subtle analysis of the level sets intersecting the given line is needed. We also find simple formulas for the Heston distance from a point to a level set. As a natural application, we use the formulas obtained in the present paper in the study of the small maturity limit of the implied volatility in the Heston model.