Related papers: Contracting the boundary of a Riemannian 2-disc

We answer a question of Liokumovich-Nabutovsky-Rotman showing that if D is a Riemannian 2-disc with boundary length L, diameter d and area A << d then D can be filled by a homotopy where the lengths of the intermediate curves are bounded by…

Given a Riemannian metric on the 2-sphere, sweep the 2-sphere out by a continuous one-parameter family of closed curves starting and ending at point curves. Pull the sweepout tight by, in a continuous way, pulling each curve as tight as…

Let $M$ be a Riemannian $2$-sphere. A classical theorem of Lyusternik and Shnirelman asserts the existence of three distinct simple non-trivial periodic geodesics on $M$. In this paper we prove that there exist three simple periodic…

We construct a family of Riemannian 3-spheres that cannot be "swept out" by short closed curves. More precisely, for each $L > 0$ we construct a Riemannian 3-sphere $M$ with diameter and volume less than 1, so that every 2-parameter family…

We show that for every complete Riemannian surface $M$ diffeomorphic to a sphere with $k \geq 0$ holes there exists a Morse function $f:M \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$, which is constant on each connected component of the boundary of $M$ and has…

The classic Lusternik--Schnirelmann theorem states that there are three distinct simple periodic geodesics on any Riemannian 2-sphere $M$. It has been proven by Y. Liokumovich, A. Nabutovsky and R. Rotman that the shortest three such curves…

Given a sweepout of a Riemannian 2-sphere which is composed of curves of length less than L, we construct a second sweepout composed of curves of length less than L which are either constant curves or simple curves. This result, and the…

We prove that any Riemannian two-sphere with area at most 1 can be continuously mapped onto a tree in a such a way that the topology of fibers is controlled and their length is less than 7.6. This result improves previous estimates and…

We prove the absence of a universal diameter bound on lengths of curves in a sweep-out of a Riemannian 2-sphere. If such bound existed it would yield a simple proof of existence of short geodesic segments and closed geodesics on a sphere of…

Let $M$ be a simply connected Riemannian manifold in $\mathscr{M}_{k,v}^D(n)$, the space of closed Riemannian manifolds of dimension $n$ with sectional curvature bounded below by $k$, volume bounded below by $v$, and diameter bounded above…

In this paper we prove new upper bounds for the length of a shortest closed geodesic, denoted $l(M)$, on a complete, non-compact Riemannian surface $M$ of finite area $A$. We will show that $l(M) \leq 4\sqrt{2A}$ on a manifold with one end,…

This paper proves that in any closed Riemannian surface $M$ with diameter $d$, the length of the $k^\text{th}$-shortest geodesic between two given points $p$ and $q$ is at most $8kd$. This bound can be tightened further to $6kd$ if $p = q$.…

We prove the existence of at least two distinct short, simple orthogonal geodesic chords on a Riemannian 2-disk $M$ with convex boundary. The lengths of these curves are bounded in terms of the length of $\partial M$, the diameter of $M$,…

Let x and y be two (not necessarily distinct) points on a closed Riemannian manifold M of dimension n. According to a celebrated theorem by J.P. Serre there exist infinitely many geodesics between x and y. The length of the shortest of…

It is a classical theorem of Loewner that the systole of a Riemannian torus can be bounded in terms of its area. We answer a question of a similar flavor of Robert Young showing that if $T$ is a Riemannian 2-torus with boundary in $\mathbb…

We construct a counterexample to a conjectured inequality L<2D, relating the diameter D and the least length L of a nontrivial closed geodesic, for a Riemannian metric on the 2-sphere. The construction relies on Guillemin's theorem…

P. Papasoglu asked in [Pap13] whether for any Riemannian 3-disk $M$ with diameter $d$, boundary area $A$ and volume $V$, there exists a homotopy $S_t$ contracting the boundary to a point so that the area of $S_t$ is bounded by $f(d,A,V)$…

Let $M$ be a compact $n$-dimensional Riemannian manifold with nonnegative Ricci curvature and mean convex boundary $\partial M$. Assume that the mean curvature $H$ of the boundary $\partial M$ satisfies $H \geq (n-1) k >0$ for some positive…

We address the question of whether a Riemannian manifold-with-boundary (M,g) in dimension two is uniquely determined from knowledge of the distances between points on its boundary. An affirmative answer is called boundary rigidity for…

In this paper we extend and simplify previous results regarding the computation of Euclidean Wilson loops in the context of the AdS/CFT correspondence, or, equivalently, the problem of finding minimal area surfaces in hyperbolic space…