Stability of the conjugate index, degenerate conjugate points and the Maslov index in semi-Riemannian geometry. (Q1858331)

The authors study the conjugate points along a geodesic of a semi-Riemannian manifold. The same question has been previously studied by \textit{A. D. Helfer} in [Pac. J. Math. 164, No. 2, 321--350 (1994; Zbl 0799.58018)]. However, in that paper as well as in the standard book by O'Neill there is a gap. As is illustrated in the paper, in contrast to Riemannian geometry, in semi-Riemannian geometry without additional nondegeneracy conditions strange phenomena can occur. For example the possibility of accumulation of conjugate points along a geodesic. The authors introduce a sufficient condition which implies that the set of focal instants along a semi-Riemannian geodesic is finite. Using this hypothesis, together with a nondegeneracy condition on the focal instants it is then shown that the index of the focal points equals the Maslov index and that the index of the focal points is stable.