Related papers: Short Simple Geodesic Loops on a 2-Sphere

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…

The simple length spectrum of a Riemannian manifold is the set of lengths of its simple closed geodesics. We prove a theorem claimed by Lusternik: in any Riemannian 2-sphere whose simple length spectrum consists of only one element L, any…

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…

We extend two celebrated theorems on closed geodesics of Riemannian 2-spheres to the larger class of reversible Finsler 2-spheres: Lusternik-Schnirelmann's theorem asserting the existence of three simple closed geodesics, 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…

On a hyperbolic Riemann surface, given two simple closed geodesics that intersect $n$ times, we address the question of a sharp lower bound $L_n$ on the length attained by the longest of the two geodesics. We show the existence of a surface…

We give a Morse-theoretic characterization of simple closed geodesics on Riemannian $2$-spheres. On any Riemannian $2$-sphere endowed with a generic metric, we show there exists a simple closed geodesic with Morse index $1$, $2$ and $3$. In…

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 $M$,…

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 $p = q$.…

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 show that the geodesic period spectrum of a Riemannian 2-orbifold all of whose geodesics are closed depends, up to a constant, only on its orbifold topology and compute it. In the manifold case we recover the fact proved by Gromoll,…

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…

Let $M^n$ be a closed Riemannian manifold of dimension $n\geq 2$, with Ricci curvature $Ric \geq n-1$. We will show that any sphere of dimension $m$ in the space of closed loops on $M^n$ is homotopic to the sphere in the space of closed…

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…

Geodesic loops on polyhedra were studied only for Euclidean space and it was known that there are no simple geodesic loops on regular tetrahedra. Here we prove that: 1) On the spherical space, there are no simple geodesic loops on…

We show that the shortest closed geodesic on a 2-sphere with non-negative curvature has length bounded above by three times the diameter. We prove a new isoperimetric inequality for 2-spheres with pinched curvature; this allows us to…

We prove the existence of immersed closed curves of constant geodesic curvature in an arbitrary Riemannian 2-sphere for almost every prescribed curvature. To achieve this, we develop a min-max scheme for a weighted length functional.

We investigate the rudiments of Riemannian geometry on orbit spaces $M/G$ for isometric proper actions of Lie groups on Riemannian manifolds. Minimal geodesic arcs are length minimising curves in the metric space $M/G$ and they can hit…

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,…

The theorem that if all geodesics of a Riemannian two-sphere are closed they are also simple closed is generalized to real Hamiltonian structures on $\mathbb{R}P^3$. For reversible Finsler $2$-spheres all of whose geodesics are closed this…