Closed geodesics on non-simply-connected manifolds (Q5906591)

It is known that the number \(N(t)\) of geometrically distinct geodesics of length \(<t\) on a given Riemannian manifold \(M^ n\), \(n > 1\) satisfies (*) \(N(t) \geq C(t /\ln (t))\) if \(M\) is closed and \(\pi_ 1(M^ n)\) is infinite nilpotent (where the constant \(C\) depends on the metric) [ see \textit{V. Bangert} and \textit{N. Hingston}, J. Differ. Geom. 19, 277--282 (1984; Zbl 0545.53036) and \textit{W. Ballman}, Topology 25, 55--69 (1986; Zbl 0601.53040)]. The author generalizes this result to manifolds with almost solvable fundamental groups, i.e., he proves that the estimate (*) is true if the fundamental group \(\pi_ 1(M)\) contains some normal abelian subgroup of finite index \(G\) such that \(\pi_ 1(M)/G\) is aperiodic (Theorem 1); or there is a normal series \(1 \subset H \subset F \subset G\) such that (1) \(G\) is a subgroup of finite index in \(\pi_ 1(M)\), (2) \(H\) is a nonzero commutative subgroup, (3) \(G/F\) is an infinite cyclic group (Theorem 2); or if \(\pi_ 1(M)\) contains a solvable subgroup of finite index (Theorem 3).