No label defined (Q4379900)

A closed Riemannian manifold \((M,g)\) is called \(C^k\)-geodesically rigid iff any closed Riemannian manifold \((N,h)\) for which there exists a homeomorphism \(F: S_g(M)\to S_h(N)\) of class \(C^k\) between the tangent unit sphere bundles commuting with the geodesic flow must be isometric to \((M,g)\). A two-step nilpotent group is a nilpotent group \(N\) whose derived group \([N,N]\) is contained in the center of \(N\). A two-step nilmanifold is the quotient by a cocompact lattice of a two-step nilpotent group equipped with a left-invariant metric. There are two well-studied algebraically characterized subclasses of two-step nilmanifolds, the nilmanifolds ``strongly in resonance'' and the even more special nilmanifolds of ``Heisenberg type''. A result of \textit{C. Gordon} and \textit{Y.-P. Mao} [`Geodesic conjugacies of two-step nilmanifolds', Preprint] asserts that Heisenberg type nilmanifolds are \(C^0\)-geodesically rigid in the class of all nilmanifolds and that nilmanifolds strongly in resonance are \(C^2\)-geodesically rigid in the class of nilmanifolds. It is natural to conjecture that nilmanifolds strongly in resonance are \(C^0\)-geodesically rigid in the class of nilmanifolds. In the present paper, it is shown that the only known example of a nilmanifold strongly in resonance which is not of Heisenberg type is indeed \(C^0\)-geodesically rigid in the class of nilmanifolds. The methods of proof are essentially those of Gordon and Mao. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0882.00016].