Systolic freedom of loop space. (Q5937267)

This paper is devoted to the question whether the total volume of a Riemannian manifold has any influence on the volume of its submanifolds. The following result is proved: Let \(m\) and \(n\) be integers such that \(1 < m < n\) and \(X\) be an \(n\)-dimensional compact smooth manifold. Then \(X\) admits metrics of arbitrarily small total volume, such that every \(m\)-dimensional orientable submanifold of less than unit \(m\)-volume is null-homologous as a cycle with rational coefficients. In other words, the manifold \(X\) admits a sequence of metrics \((X,g_j)\) with \(\text{vol}(g_j)\rightarrow0\) as \(j\rightarrow0\) and such that for every \(m\)-dimensional orientable \(M\subset X\) the condition \(\text{vol}_m(M)<1\) implies that the homology class \([M]\) vanishes in \(H_m(X,Q)\). This property is called systolic freedom (modulo torsion).