On geodesic with the same angle (Q760031)

Let M be a complete Riemannian manifold, N a connected compact closed submanifold without boundary and f an isometry on M with \(f(N)=N\). For any \(x\in N\), let P be the orthogonal projection of \(T_ xM\) on \(T_ xN\). A geodesic \(\alpha\) : I\(=]0,1[\to M\) with (\(\alpha\) (0),\(\alpha\) (1))\(\in N\times N\) is called a geodesic with the same angle for N if the angles \(\sphericalangle ({\dot \alpha}(0),P({\dot \alpha}(0)))\) and \(\sphericalangle ({\dot \alpha}(1),P({\dot \alpha}(1)))\) are equal. Extending the case of codimension 1 of N in M, treated in [Nagoya Math. J. 81, 27-43 (1981; Zbl 0476.58009)] the author shows that, if f has a finite number of fixed points on N and if M is simply connected, there exists a non-trivial geodesic with the same angle for N, except the case in which f has exactly one fixed point. Moreover, if f is fixed point free, then there exists always such a geodesic. The proof uses the method of the infinite dimensional critical point theory. If \(L^ 2_ 1(I,M)\) is the set of absolutely continuous maps from I to M with square integrable derivative, the searched geodesics appear as the critical points of the restriction of the energy functional to the Hilbert submanifold \(\Lambda_ N(M,f)=\{\alpha \in L^ 2_ 1(I,M)\); \(f(\alpha (0))=\alpha (1)\), \(\alpha\) (0)\(\in N\}\) of \(L^ 2_ 1(I,M)\).