Lengths of three simple periodic geodesics on a Riemannian 2-sphere (Q514366)

Let \(M\) be a Riemannian manifold of diameter \(d\) diffeomorphic to the 2-dimensional sphere in \(\mathbb{R}^3\). A classical theorem of \textit{L. Lusternik} and \textit{L. Schnirelmann} [C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris 189, 269--271 (1929; JFM 55.0316.02)] states that there exist three distinct simple non-trivial periodic geodesics on \(M\). The main goal of the paper is the proof of the fact (Theorem 1.1) that the length of each geodesic cannot exceed \(20d\). This result extends the estimation of lengths of two shorter periodic geodesics equal to \(5d\) and \(10d\) which were obtained by the second and third author in [J. Topol. Anal. 5, No. 4, 409--438 (2013; Zbl 1282.53032)]. Moreover, in the case when the area of \(M\) is much less than \(d^2\) the estimations mentioned above can be strengthened (Theorems 1.2 and 1.3).