Skip to main content

All Questions

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
6 votes
1 answer
129 views

On properties of Besse spheres

Let $(\mathbb{S}^2,g)$ be a Besse sphere, that is, a Riemannian sphere all of whose geodesics are closed. By a result of Gromoll and Grove, all the geodesics are simple (no self-intersections) and ...
Eduardo Longa's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
434 views

Smooth manifolds for which every metric is geodesically convex

Are there non compact smooth manifolds which have the property that every Riemannian metric is geodesically convex? Note that a manifold for which every Riemannian metric is complete must be compact. ...
Asaf Shachar's user avatar
  • 6,741
4 votes
1 answer
797 views

The heat kernel as an exponential of an integral

In $\mathbb{R}^n$, if $\gamma$ is a line segment between $x_0 = \gamma (0)$ and $x = \gamma (t)$, one has the following formula: $$\frac {\mathbb{e}^{- \frac{1}{4} \int_0^t <\dot{\gamma}, \dot{\...
Alex M.'s user avatar
  • 5,407
4 votes
1 answer
169 views

What integral formula is being used here?

I am trying to read the paper "Simple closed geodesics on convex surfaces" by E.Calabi and J. Cao and a certain passage is unclear for me. Before, let me contextualize and set up some ...
Eduardo Longa's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
137 views

Geodesic-like curves stemming from the heat kernel on a manifold

Consider a smooth $n$-dimensional Riemannian manifold $M$ with sufficiently nice geometric and topological properties such that there exist a unique heat kernel $(t,x,y) \mapsto p(t,x,y)$ on it ($t>...
Alex M.'s user avatar
  • 5,407
4 votes
1 answer
1k views

Geodesic convexity and the Geometric Hessian

This is an elementary question in differential geometry. We know that for a smooth real-valued function $f$ defined on an open geodesically convex set of a Riemannian manifold $ \mathcal{X} \subset \...
user1952770's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
242 views

Infinitely many simple closed geodesics in any compact orientable surface but the sphere

My question is the following: if $(\Sigma, g)$ is any compact orientable Riemannian surface of genus $g \geq 1$, is it true that there are infinitely many closed, simple and geometrically distinct ...
Eduardo Longa's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
109 views

Application of Santalo’s formula

Suppose that $(M,g)$ is a compact smooth Riemannian manifold with a smooth boundary and suppose that $f$ is a smooth function on $M$ with the property that $$ \int_I f(\gamma(t))\,dt=0,$$ for any ...
Ali's user avatar
  • 4,145
3 votes
0 answers
531 views

Geodesics (Local vs Global)

Let $M$ be a Riemannian manifold, and $p,q\in M$ two points. Now, if $M$ is a complete metric space the Hopf–Rinow theorem ensures that there is a geodesic $C\subset M$ joining $p$ and $q$ that ...
user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
164 views

A question on convexity and conjugate points

Let $(M,g)$ be a compact smooth simply connected Riemannian manifold with a smooth boundary. Assume also that $(M,g)$ does not have any conjugate pairs of points. Let $\Gamma \subset \partial M$ be a ...
Ali's user avatar
  • 4,145