Length of geodesics and quantitative Morse theory on loop spaces (Q352124)

Let \(M^n\) be a closed Riemannian manifold of diameter \(d\). The main result of the paper is that for every two (not necessarily distinct) points \(p,q\in M^n\) and every positive integer \(k\) there are at least \(k\) distinct geodesics connecting \(p\) and \(q\) of length \(\leq 4nk^2d\). It is shown that all homotopy classes of \(M^n\) can be represented by spheres swept-out by ``short'' loops unless the length functional has ``many'' ``deep'' local minima of a ``small'' length on the space \(\Omega _{pq}M^n\) of paths connecting \(p\) and \(q\). One of the results implies that for every positive integer \(k\) there are two possibilities: Either the length functional on \(\Omega _{pq}M^n\) has \(k\) distinct non-trivial local minima with length \(\leq 2kd\) and ``depth'' \(\geq 2d\); or for every \(m\) every map of \(S^m\) into \(\Omega _{pq}M^n\) is homotopic to a map of \(S^m\) into the subspace \(\Omega _{pq}^{4(k+2)(m+1)d}M^n\) of \(\Omega _{pq}M^n\) that consists of all paths of length \(\leq 4(k+2)(m+1)d\).