Odd-dimensional orbifolds with all geodesics closed are covered by manifolds

DOI10.1007/S00208-021-02214-6MaRDI QIDQ2049953zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Manuel Amann, Christian Lange, Marco Radeschi

Publication date 27 August 2021

Published in Mathematische Annalen (Search for Journal in Brave)

Copyright license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1811.10320

zbMATH Keywords

Besse manifoldBesse metricclosed geodesicsRiemannian orbifolds

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Geodesics in global differential geometry (53C22) Topology and geometry of orbifolds (57R18)

Abstract: Manifolds all of whose geodesics are closed have been studied a lot, but there are only few examples known. The situation is different if one allows in addition for orbifold singularities. We show, nevertheless, that the abundance of new examples is restricted to even dimensions. As one key ingredient we provide a characterization of orientable manifolds among orientable orbifolds in terms of characteristic classes.

Review text

The study of the existence of closed geodesics on Riemannian manifolds has a long and storied past beginning with the fundamental result of \textit{L. A. Lyusternik} and \textit{A. I. Fet} [Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR, n. Ser. 81, 17--18 (1951; Zbl 0045.20903)] that every closed Riemannian manifold possesses at least one closed geodesic and later from the results of \textit{D. Gromoll} and \textit{W. Meyer} [J. Differ. Geom. 3, 493--510 (1969; Zbl 0203.54401)] and \textit{M. Vigue-Poirrier} and \textit{D. Sullivan} [J. Differ. Geom. 11, 633--644 (1976; Zbl 0361.53058)] that every closed Riemannian manifold admits infinitely many closed geodesics as long as its rational cohomology is not generated by one element. So-called \emph{Besse manifolds}, that is, those closed Riemannian manifolds all of whose geodesics are closed have also been extensively studied [\textit{A. Besse}, Manifolds all of whose geodesics are closed. Berlin-Heidelberg-New York: Springer-Verlag (1978; Zbl 0387.53010)], and are known to have a universal covering from one of the compact rank one symmetric spaces. The study of closed geodesics has a natural extension to Riemannian orbifolds. These questions have been previously studied by the reviewer [Riemannian geometry of orbifolds. University of California, Los Angeles, USA (PhD Thesis) (1992); Pac. J. Math. 175, No. 1, 39--46 (1996; Zbl 0865.53034); Houston J. Math. 33, No. 4, 1011--1025 (2007; Zbl 1144.53057)], \textit{K. Guruprasad} and \textit{A. Haefliger} [Topology 45, No. 3, 611--641 (2006; Zbl 1099.53035)], \textit{G. C. Dragomir} [Geom. Dedicata 172, 399--411 (2014; Zbl 1301.57022)], and \textit{C. Lange} [Pac. J. Math. 294, No. 2, 453--472 (2018; Zbl 1390.53033); J. Reine Angew. Math. Journal Profile 758, 67--94 (2020; Zbl 1431.53045)], for example. For even dimensions, weighted projective spaces provide infinitely many examples of Besse orbifolds. However, for odd dimensions, the situation is much more restricted in view of the main result of the article under under review. The authors prove that any odd-dimensional Besse orbifold is of the form \((M,g)/\Gamma\) for some Riemannian manifold \(M\) homeomorphic to a sphere, a Besse metric \(g\), and some finite group \(\Gamma\) of isometries of \((M, g)\). Moreover, if \(n\ne 3\) and \(\Gamma\) contains a fixed-point-free involution, then \((M, g)\) is isometric to a round sphere and \(\Gamma\subset O(n + 1)\).

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Cited in

(6)

• On the Berger conjecture for manifolds all of whose geodesics are closed
• Sharp systolic inequalities for rotationally symmetric 2-orbifolds
• Closed geodesics on orbifolds of nonpositive or nonnegative curvature
• DEFORMATIONS OF THE VERONESE EMBEDDING AND FINSLER -SPHERES OF CONSTANT CURVATURE
• How highly connected can an orbifold be?
• A Boothby-Wang theorem for Besse contact manifolds

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