The length of a shortest geodesic net on a closed Riemannian manifold (Q884324)

Let \(M\) be a closed Riemannian manifold of dimension \(n\) and of diameter \(d\). A minimal geodesic net is a critical point of the length functional on the space of immersed graphs in \(M\). For two distinct points in \(M\), the graph joined by \(m\) geodesic segments between the points, with the condition that the sums of unit vectors tangent to the geodesic segments directed from the points are equal to zero, is called a minimal \(m\)-cage. If \(q\) is the smallest number such that \(\pi_q(M)\neq\{0\}\), then the author shows that there is a non-trivial minimal \(m\)-cage on \(M\), where \(2\leq m\leq(q+1)\), such that the length of the minimal \(m\)-cage is bounded by \(md\), and thus, by \((n+1)d\). He also shows that there is a minimal geodesic net with at most \((n+2)\) vertices and at most \(\frac{1}{2}(n+1)(n+2)\) geodesic segments of \[ \text{length} \leq(n+1)(n+2) \text{FillRad}(M)\leq(n+1)^2n^n(n+2)\sqrt{(n+1)!} \cdot \text{vol}(M)^{\frac{1}{n}}, \] where \(\text{FillRad}\) is the filling radius of \(M\). These results improve the results of A. Nabutovsky and R. Rotman. For details see the references in this article.