Self-crossing geodesics (Q2154137)

The paper is part of a column about mathematics passed on informally, but are of wider interest. Here closed geodesics on strictly convex (i.e., positively curved) surfaces with a fixed number of self-intersections are presented. Fixing the number of self-intersections limits the number of possible configurations. The article explains how to use the Gauß-Bonnet Theorem and Toponogov's Theorem in order to exclude certain configuration with five simple self-intersections.