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

In this paper, we prove the existence of at least two distinct closed geodesics on every compact simply connected irreversible or reversible Finsler (including Riemannian) manifold of dimension not less than 2.

In this paper we study 1/k-geodesics, those closed geodesics that minimize on any subinterval of length $L/k$, where $L$ is the length of the geodesic. We investigate the existence and behavior of these curves on doubled polygons and show…

In every conformal class of Finsler (or Riemannian) metrics on a closed manifold there exists a residual subset of Finsler metrics, such that, with respect to the residual Finsler metrics, in any non-trivial homotopy class of free loops…

A minimal geodesic on a Riemannian manifold is a geodesic defined on $\mathbb{R}$ that lifts to a globally distance minimizing curve on the universal covering. Bangert proved that there is a lower bound for the number of geometrically…

We explicitly describe the length minimizing geodesics for a sub-Riemannian structure of the elliptic type defined on $SL(2, \mathbb{R})$. Our method uses a symmetry reduction which translates the problem into a Riemannian problem on a two…

In this paper, we show that for any closed 4-dimensional simply-connected Riemannian manifold $M$ with Ricci curvature $|Ric|\leq 3$, volume $vol(M)>v>0$, and diameter $diam(M)<D$, the length of a shortest closed geodesic is bounded by a…

We study arrangements of geodesic arcs on a sphere, where all arcs are internally disjoint and each arc has its endpoints located within the interior of other arcs. We establish fundamental results concerning the minimum number of arcs in…

In many singular metric spaces, the regularity of a shortest-length curve is unknown. Algebraic varieties, or more generally sets defined by finitely many polynomial or real analytic equalities or inequalities, all locally partition into…

We consider geodesic nets (critical points of a length functional on the space of embedded graphs) on doubled polygons (topological 2-spheres endowed with a flat metric away from finitely many cone singularities). We use the theorem of…

This is a survey paper on Morse theory and the existence problem for closed geodesics. The free loop space plays a central role, since closed geodesics are critical points of the energy functional. As such, they can be analyzed through…

In this paper, we are interested in short homologically and homotopically independent loops based at the same point on Riemannian surfaces and metric graphs. First, we show that for every closed Riemannian surface of genus $g \geq 2$ and…

Using the theory of geodesics on surfaces of revolution, we introduce the period function. We use this as our main tool in showing that any two-dimensional orbifold of revolution homeomorphic to S^2 must contain an infinite number of…

We investigate local and global properties of timelike geodesics in three static spherically symmetric spacetimes. These properties are of its own mathematical relevance and provide a solution of the physical `twin paradox' problem. The…

We prove that for any six points on the Riemann sphere there exist three disjoint closed (or open) discs, each of which contains exactly two of the six distinguished points. This statement shows that recently proposed method to numerically…

The goal of this paper is to study periodic geodesics for sub-Riemannian metrics on a contact 3D-manifold.We develop two rather independent subjects:1) The existence of closed geodesics spiraling around periodic Reeb orbits for a generic…

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 note we show that for any hyperbolic surface S, the number of geodesics of length bounded above by L in the mapping class group orbit of a fixed closed geodesic with a single double point is asymptotic to L raised to the dimension…

A conformal metric ${\rm d}s^{2}$ with finitely many conical singularities of constant Gaussian curvature $K=1$ on a compact Riemann surface is referred to as a spherical conical metric. When the associated monodromy group of ${\rm d}s^{2}$…

In this paper, we try to generalize to the case of compact Riemannian orbifolds $Q$ some classical results about the existence of closed geodesics of positive length on compact Riemannian manifolds $M$. We shall also consider the problem of…

Given a Riemannian metric on a homotopy $n$-sphere, sweep it 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…