Nonpositively curved surfaces are Loewner (Q6596293)

C. Loewner proved that for every Riemannian metric \(g\) on the 2-dimensional torus the ratio \N\[\N\frac{\mathrm{Area}(g)}{\mathrm{sys}(g)^2} \geq \frac {\sqrt{3}}{2}\N\]\Nholds where \(\mathrm{Area}(g)\) is the area of \(g\) and \(\mathrm{sys}(g)\) is the length of the shortest non-contractible closed curve. A closed surface \((M,g)\) is said to be Loewner if \( \frac{\mathrm{Area}(g)}{\mathrm{sys}(g)^2} \geq \frac {\sqrt{3}}{2}\).\N\NEarlier work has shown for every closed surface \(M\) of genus \(\geq 18\), that \((M,g)\) is Loewner for every Riemannian metric \(g\) on \(M\) [\textit{Q. Li} and \textit{W. Su}, ``Every closed surface of genus at least 18 is Loewner'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:2401.00720}]. Closed surfaces which are conformally hyper-elliptic are also Loewner [\textit{M. G. Katz} and \textit{S. Sabourau}, Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 134, No. 4, 1189--1195 (2006; Zbl 1090.53045)].\N\NThe paper under review shows that every nonpositively curved closed surface is Loewner. The proof is obtained by showing there exists a disk with large total curvature and large area. This is done with the help of the Gauss-Bonnet formula and an averaging argument that uses the invariance of the Liouville measure under the geodesic flow on the unit tangent bundle.