The minimal length product over homology bases of manifolds (Q2035594)

Minkowski's second theorem asserts that the product of the successive minima of a symmetric convex body in Euclidean space is bounded in terms of its volume. It can be reinterpreted as an inequality for flat Finsler tori, i.e., any flat \(n\)-dimensional Finsler torus with Busemann-Hausdorff volume \(V\) admits a family of closed geodesics \(\gamma_1, \ldots, \gamma_n\) inducing a basis of its first real homology group whose product of lengths satisfies \[\prod_{k=1}^{n}\ell(\gamma_k) \leq \frac{2^n}{b_n}V,\] where \(b_n\) denotes the volume of the Euclidean unit ball. This paper generalises the inequality to a larger class of Riemannian and Finsler manifolds including surfaces. The main theorem shows that if a closed Riemannian \(n\)-manifold \(M\) with first \(\mathbb{Z}_2\)-Betti number \(b>0\) satisfies a non-vanishing condition for the hyperdeterminant reduced modulo 2 of the multilinear map induced by the fundamental class on the first \(\mathbb{Z}_2\)-cohomology group via the cup product, then there exists a \(\mathbb{Z}_2\)-homology basis induced by closed geodesics \(\gamma_1, \ldots, \gamma_b\) whose length product satisfies \[\prod_{k=1}^{b}\ell(\gamma_k) \leq n^b\mathrm{Vol}(M)^{\frac{b}{n}}.\] A corollary is Minkowski's second principle for closed Riemannian surfaces with non-vanishing first Betti number. The authors also prove a result for the case of dimension 2 via \(\mathbb{Z}\)-homology basis. It asserts that if \(S\) is an orientable closed Riemannian surface of genus \(g\), then there exists a \(\mathbb{Z}\)-homology basis induced by closed geodesics \(\gamma_1, \ldots, \gamma_{2g}\) whose length product satisfies \[\prod_{k=1}^{2g}\ell(\gamma_k) \leq 2^{31g}\mathrm{Area}(S)^{g}.\] Furthermore, many analogous inequalities are obtained in the paper under various conditions.