On manifolds admitting continuous foliations by geodesics
type: Item
instance of: scholarly article
title: On manifolds admitting continuous foliations by geodesics
zbMATH Open document ID: 0951.53050
DOI: 10.1023/A:1005228901975
published in: Geometriae Dedicata
publication date: 2000-03-27T00:00:00Z
review text: The author presents some relations between a certain class of manifolds continuously foliated by geodesics and manifolds without conjugate points. \textit{H. Gluck} [Lect. Notes Math. 819, 190-215 (1980; Zbl 0448.58016)] and \textit{D. Sullivan} [J. Pure Appl. Algebra 13, 101-104 (1978; Zbl 0402.57015)] started studies of geodesible flows on a differentiable manifold. In particular, a differentiable flow \(\phi_t\) is geodesible if and only if there exists a distribution transversal to \(\phi_t\) which is preserved by some reparametrization of \(\phi_t\). The author proves the following theorem. Theorem 1. Let \((M,g)\) be a complete simply connected Riemannian manifold. Let \(X:M\to TM\) be a geodesic vector field (i.e., \(X\) is the unit tangent vector field of a continuous, oriented foliation of \(M\) by geodesics). Then 1) The distribution \(X^\bot\) is uniquely integrable, and the integral submanifolds of \(X^\bot\) form a \(C^0\) foliation of \(M\) by \(C^1\) leaves which are complete with respect to the metric induced by \(g\). 2) The orbits of \(X\) have no conjugate points. 3) The manifold \(M\) is homeomorphic to \(F\times\mathbb{R}\) where \(F\) is an integral submanifold of \(X^\bot\), and the integral leaves of \(X^\bot\) are simply connected and equidistant. From Theorem 1, the result about manifolds without conjugate points follows. Theorem 2. Let \((M,g)\) be a compact Riemannian manifold. Then \((M,g)\) has no conjugate points if and only if every geodesic in the universal covering \(\tilde M\) of \(M\) is an integral orbit of a continuous geodesic vector field \(X:\tilde M\to T\tilde M\) with integrable \(X^\bot\).
reviewed by: Vladimir Yu. Rovenskij
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 53D25
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 58A30
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 37D40
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 53C12
zbMATH DE Number: 1384069
zbMATH Keywords: geodesic foliation
zbMATH Keywords: integrable distribution
zbMATH Keywords: geodesible flow
zbMATH Keywords: geodesic vector field
zbMATH Keywords: conjugate points
author: Rafael O. Ruggiero
MaRDI profile type: MaRDI publication profile
full work available at URL: a:1005228901975
OpenAlex ID: W207606253
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description: scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1384069