Path-lifting properties of the exponential map with applications to geodesics (Q6172766)

Summary: We revisit certain path-lifting and path-continuation properties of abstract maps as described in the work of \textit{F. E. Browder} [Duke Math. J. 21, 329--336 (1954; Zbl 0056.16602)] and \textit{W. C. Rheinboldt} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 138, 183--198 (1969; Zbl 0175.45201)] in the 1950s and 1960s, and apply their elegant theory to exponential maps. We obtain thereby a number of novel results of existence and multiplicity of geodesics joining any two points of a connected affine manifold, as well as \textit{causal} geodesics connecting any two causally related points on a Lorentzian manifold. These results include a generalization of the well-known Hadamard-Cartan theorem of Riemannian geometry to the affine manifold context, as well as a new version of the so-called Lorentzian Hadamard-Cartan theorem using weaker assumptions than global hyperbolicity and timelike 1-connectedness required in the extant version. We also include a general description of \textit{pseudoconvexity and disprisonment} of broad classes of geodesics in terms of suitable restrictions of the exponential map. The latter description sheds further light on the relation between pseudoconvexity and disprisonment of a given such class on the one hand, and geodesic connectedness by members of that class on the other.