On manifolds admitting continuous foliations by geodesics (Q1818585)

From MaRDI portal
scientific article
Language Label Description Also known as
English
On manifolds admitting continuous foliations by geodesics
scientific article

    Statements

    On manifolds admitting continuous foliations by geodesics (English)
    0 references
    27 March 2000
    0 references
    The author presents some relations between a certain class of manifolds continuously foliated by geodesics and manifolds without conjugate points. \textit{H. Gluck} [Lect. Notes Math. 819, 190-215 (1980; Zbl 0448.58016)] and \textit{D. Sullivan} [J. Pure Appl. Algebra 13, 101-104 (1978; Zbl 0402.57015)] started studies of geodesible flows on a differentiable manifold. In particular, a differentiable flow \(\phi_t\) is geodesible if and only if there exists a distribution transversal to \(\phi_t\) which is preserved by some reparametrization of \(\phi_t\). The author proves the following theorem. Theorem 1. Let \((M,g)\) be a complete simply connected Riemannian manifold. Let \(X:M\to TM\) be a geodesic vector field (i.e., \(X\) is the unit tangent vector field of a continuous, oriented foliation of \(M\) by geodesics). Then 1) The distribution \(X^\bot\) is uniquely integrable, and the integral submanifolds of \(X^\bot\) form a \(C^0\) foliation of \(M\) by \(C^1\) leaves which are complete with respect to the metric induced by \(g\). 2) The orbits of \(X\) have no conjugate points. 3) The manifold \(M\) is homeomorphic to \(F\times\mathbb{R}\) where \(F\) is an integral submanifold of \(X^\bot\), and the integral leaves of \(X^\bot\) are simply connected and equidistant. From Theorem 1, the result about manifolds without conjugate points follows. Theorem 2. Let \((M,g)\) be a compact Riemannian manifold. Then \((M,g)\) has no conjugate points if and only if every geodesic in the universal covering \(\tilde M\) of \(M\) is an integral orbit of a continuous geodesic vector field \(X:\tilde M\to T\tilde M\) with integrable \(X^\bot\).
    0 references
    geodesic foliation
    0 references
    integrable distribution
    0 references
    geodesible flow
    0 references
    geodesic vector field
    0 references
    conjugate points
    0 references

    Identifiers

    0 references
    0 references
    0 references
    0 references
    0 references
    0 references