Multiple closed geodesics on Finsler 3-dimensional sphere (Q7021373)

Finding upper and lower bounds for the number of prime closed geodesics on a Riemannian or Finslerian manifold is a difficult problem with various interesting approaches in many cases. In the Finslerian context, phenomena different from the Riemannian case might occur due the the irreversibility of the geodesics.\N\NThe authors prove that for a bumpy Finsler metric on \(S^3\) (which is irreversible with all closed geodesics non-degenerate), whose all prime closed geodesics have non-zero Morse index, the minimum number of prime closed geodesics is four. This proves the the conjecture in [\textit{D. V. Anosov}, Transl., Ser. 2, Am. Math. Soc. 109, 81--85 (1977; Zbl 0368.53045)] for bumpy Finsler metrics on \(S^3\) under the assumption of non-zero index.