On the Berger conjecture for manifolds all of whose geodesics are closed

DOI10.1007/S00222-017-0742-4MaRDI QIDQ1689501zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors Marco Radeschi, Burkhard Wilking

Publication date 12 January 2018

Published in Inventiones Mathematicae (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1511.07852

zbMATH Keywords

Berger conjecturemanifolds all of whose geodesics are closedMorse theory

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Geodesics in global differential geometry (53C22) Variational problems in applications to the theory of geodesics (problems in one independent variable) (58E10)

Abstract: A conjecture of Berger states that, for any simply connected Riemannian manifold all of whose geodesics are closed, all prime geodesics have the same length. We firstly show that the energy function on the free loop space of such a manifold is a perfect Morse-Bott function with respect to a suitable cohomology. Secondly we explain when the negative bundles along the critical manifolds are orientable. These two general results then lead to a solution of Berger's conjecture when the underlying manifold is a sphere of dimension at least four.

Review text

A Besse manifold is defined as a Riemannian manifold all of whose geodesics are closed. A conjecture of Berger states that on a simply connected Besse manifold, all prime geodesics have the same length. So far this conjecture has been proved for 2-spheres by \textit{D. Gromoll} and \textit{K. Grove} [Invent. Math. 65, 175--177 (1981; Zbl 0477.53044)] and partially in the three-dimensional case by \textit{J. Olsen} [Ann. Global Anal. Geom. 37, No. 2, 173--184 (2010; Zbl 1188.53039)]. The main goal of the paper is to show that it is true also for all spheres of dimension at least four (Theorem A). To prove this result the authors first consider the energy function on a free loop space and show the following: Theorem D. Let \(M\) be a simply connected Besse manifold. Then the energy functional is a perfect Morse-Bott function for the rational, \(S^1\)-equivariant cohomology of the pair \((\Lambda M,M)\).

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Cited in

(13)

• Odd-dimensional orbifolds with all geodesics closed are covered by manifolds
• Sharp systolic inequalities for rotationally symmetric 2-orbifolds
• Higher systolic inequalities for 3-dimensional contact manifolds
• On metrics on 2-orbifolds all of whose geodesics are closed
• Real projective spaces with all geodesics closed
• On the spectral characterization of Besse and Zoll Reeb flows
• Open problems and questions about geodesics
• A min-max characterization of Zoll Riemannian metrics
• On the structure of Besse convex contact spheres
• Besse projective spaces with many diameters
• On the local maximizers of higher capacity ratios
• Zoll manifolds with boundary
• Three-dimensional manifolds all of whose geodesics are closed

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