Convergence and the length spectrum (Q2370168)

The author defines and analyzes the \(1/k\) spectra, \(L_{1/k}(M)\), whose union over all \(k\in \mathbb N\) is the classical length spectrum. The length spectra are shown to converge in the sense that \(\lim_{k\to\infty}K_{1/k}(M_i)\subset L_{1/k}(M)\cup\{ 0\}\) as \(M_i\to M\) in the Gromov-Hausdorff sense. Energy methods are introduced to estimate the shortest element of \(L_{1/k}\). Some gap theorems are proven, including one for manifolds \(M^n\) with \(\text{Ricci}\geq n-1\) and volume close to \(\text{Vol}(S^n)\). Many of the discussed results hold on compact length spaces.