Hopf fibration: Geodesics and distances (Q533419)

Motivated by the finite-dimensional quantum mechanics modeled over the Hilbert space \(\mathbb C^n\) where the dimension \(n\) is the number of energy levels and the normalized state vectors form the sphere \(S^{2n-1}\subset \mathbb C^n\), the authors study geodesics connecting two given points on odd-dimensional spheres respecting the Hopf fibration. This geodesic boundary value problem is completely solved in the case of the three dimensional sphere and some partial results are obtained in the general case. The conclusions posed here are interesting.