Multiplicative relations in the cohomology ring of a manifold impose constraints upon its stable systoles. Given a compact Riemannian manifold (X,g), its real homology H_*(X,R) is naturally endowed with the stable norm. Briefly, if h\in H_k(X,R) then the stable norm of h is the infimum of the Riemannian k-volumes of real cycles representing h. The stable k-systole is the minimum of the stable norm over nonzero elements in the lattice of integral classes in H_k(X,R). Relying on results from the geometry of numbers due to W. Banaszczyk, and extending work by M. Gromov and J. Hebda, we prove metric-independent inequalities for products of stable systoles, where the product can be as long as the real cup length of X.
We investigate the filling area conjecture, optimal systolic inequalities, and the related problem of the nonvanishing of certain linking numbers in 3-manifolds.
We show that the systolic constant, the minimal entropy, and the spherical volume of a manifold depend only on the image of the fundamental class under the classifying map of the universal covering. Moreover, we compute the systolic constant of manifolds with fundamental group of order two (modulo the value on the real projective space) and derive an inequality between the minimal entropy and the systolic constant.
We establish combinatorial versions of various classical systolic inequalities. For a smooth triangulation of a closed smooth manifold, the minimal number of edges in a homotopically non-trivial loop contained in the $1$-skeleton gives an integer called the combinatorial systole. The number of top-dimensional simplices in the triangulation gives another integer called the combinatorial volume. We show that a class of smooth manifolds satisfies a systolic inequality for all Riemannian metrics if and only if it satisfies a corresponding combinatorial systolic inequality for all smooth triangulat…
We show that for closed orientable manifolds the $k$-dimensional stable systole admits a metric-independent volume bound if and only if there are cohomology classes of degree $k$ that generate cohomology in top-degree. Moreover, it turns out that in the nonorientable case such a bound does not exist for stable systoles of dimension at least two. Additionally, we prove that the stable systolic constant depends only on the image of the fundamental class in a suitable Eilenberg-Mac Lane space. Consequently, the stable $k$-systolic constant is completely determined by the multilinear intersection …
We prove optimal systolic inequalities on Finsler Mobius bands relating the systole and the height of the Mobius band to its Holmes-Thompson volume. We also establish an optimal systolic in- equality for Finsler Klein bottles of revolution, which we conjecture to hold true for arbitrary Finsler metrics. Extremal metric families both on the Mobius band and the Klein bottle are also presented.
We prove some sharp systolic inequalities for compact $3$-manifolds with boundary. They relate the (relative) homological systoles of the manifold to its scalar curvature and mean curvature of the boundary. In the equality case, the universal cover of the manifold is isometric to a cylinder over a disk of nonnegative constant curvature.
We give a short proof of the systolic inequality for the n-dimensional torus. The proof uses minimal hypersurfaces. It is based on the Schoen-Yau proof that an n-dimensional torus admits no metric of positive scalar curvature.
We show that the geometry of a Riemannian manifold (M,g) is sensitive to the apparently purely homotopy-theoretic invariant of M known as the Lusternik-Schnirelmann category, denoted cat_{LS}(M). Here we introduce a Riemannian analogue of cat_{LS}(M), called the systolic category of M. It is denoted cat_{sys}(M), and defined in terms of the existence of systolic inequalities satisfied by every metric g, as initiated by C. Loewner and later developed by M. Gromov. We compare the two categories. In all our examples, the inequality cat_{sys}(M) \le cat_{LS}(M) is satisfied, which typically turns …
We show that suitably defined systolic ratios are globally bounded from above on the space of rotationally symmetric spindle orbifolds and that the upper bound is attained precisely at so-called Besse metrics, i.e. Riemannian orbifold metrics all of whose geodesics are closed.
Our aim is to give a friendly introduction for students to systolic inequalities. We will stress the relationships between the classical formulation for Riemannian metrics and more recent developments related to symplectic measurements and the Viterbo conjecture. This will give us a perfect excuse to introduce the reader to some important ideas in Riemannian and symplectic geometry.
We establish isosystolic inequalities for a class of manifolds which includes the aspherical manifolds. In particular, we relate the systolic volume of aspherical manifolds first to their minimal entropy, then to the algebraic entropy of their fundamental groups.
A contact form is called Besse when the associated Reeb flow is periodic. We prove that Besse contact forms on closed connected 3-manifolds are the local maximizers of suitable higher systolic ratios. Our result extends earlier ones for Zoll contact forms, that is, contact forms whose Reeb flow defines a free circle action.
Extremal length is a classical tool in 1-dimensional complex analysis for building conformal invariants. We propose a higher-dimensional generalization for complex manifolds and provide some ideas on how to estimate and calculate it. We also show how to formulate certain natural geometric inequalities concerning moduli spaces in terms of a complex analogue of the classical Riemannian notion of systole.
We prove that the systolic ratio of a sphere of revolution $S$ does not exceed $π$ and equals $π$ if and only if $S$ is Zoll. More generally, we consider the rotationally symmetric Finsler metrics on a sphere of revolution which are defined by shifting the tangent unit circles by a Killing vector field. We prove that in this class of metrics the systolic ratio does not exceed $π$ and equals $π$ if and only if the metric is Riemannian and Zoll.
We prove an inequality between the $L^{\infty}$-norm of the contact Hamiltonian of a positive loop of contactomorphims and the minimal Reeb period. This implies that there are no small positive loops on hypertight or Liouville fillable contact manifolds. Non-existence of small positive loops for overtwisted 3-manifolds was proved by Casals-Presas-Sandon in [CPS16]. As corollaries of the inequality we deduce various results. E.g. we prove that certain periodic Reeb flows are the unique minimizers of the $L^\infty$-norm. Moreover, we establish $L^\infty$-type contact systolic inequalities in the…
We show that the existence of a nontrivial Massey product in the cohomology ring H^*(X) imposes global constraints upon the Riemannian geometry of a manifold X. Namely, we exhibit a suitable systolic inequality, associated to such a product. This generalizes an inequality proved in collaboration with Y. Rudyak, in the case when X has unit Betti numbers, and realizes the next step in M. Gromov's program for obtaining geometric inequalities associated with nontrivial Massey products. The inequality is a volume lower bound, and depends on the metric via a suitable isoperimetric quotient. The proo…
We study optimal curvature-free inequalities of the type discovered by C. Loewner and M. Gromov, using a generalisation of the Wirtinger inequality for the comass. Using a model for the classifying space BS^3 built inductively out of BS^1, we prove that the symmetric metrics of certain two-point homogeneous manifolds turn out not to be the systolically optimal metrics on those manifolds. We point out the unexpected role played by the exceptional Lie algebra E_7 in systolic geometry, via the calculation of Wirtinger constants. Using a technique of pullback with controlled systolic ratio, we cal…
We prove the simultaneous (k,n-k)-systolic freedom, for a pair of adjacent integers k smaller than n/2, of a simply connected n-manifold X. Our construction, related to recent results of I. Babenko, is concentrated in a neighborhood of suitable k-dimensional submanifolds of X. We employ calibration by differential forms supported in such neighborhoods, to provide lower bounds for the (n-k)-systoles. Meanwhile, the k-systoles are controlled from below by the monotonicity formula combined with the bounded geometry of the construction in a neighborhood of suitable (n-k+1)-dimensional submanifolds…
The systolic ratio of a contact form $α$ on the three-sphere is the quantity \[ ρ_{\mathrm{sys}}(α) = \frac{T_{\min}(α)^2}{\mathrm{vol}(S^3,α\wedge dα)}, \] where $T_{\min}(α)$ is the minimal period of closed Reeb orbits on $(S^3,α)$. A Zoll contact form is a contact form such that all the orbits of the corresponding Reeb flow are closed and have the same period. Our first main result is that $ρ_{\mathrm{sys}}\leq 1$ in a neighbourhood of the space of Zoll contact forms on $S^3$, with equality holding precisely at Zoll contact forms. This implies a particular case of a conjecture of Viterbo, a…
We outline the current state of knowledge regarding geometric inequalities of systolic type, and prove new results, including systolic freedom in dimension 4. Namely, every compact, orientable, smooth 4-manifold X admits metrics of arbitrarily small volume such that every orientable, immersed surface of smaller than unit area is necessarily null-homologous in X.
The systolic ratio of a contact form on a closed three-manifold is the quotient of the square of the shortest period of closed Reeb orbits by the contact volume. We show that every co-orientable contact structure on any closed three-manifold is defined by a contact form with arbitrarily large systolic ratio. This shows that the many existing systolic inequalities in Finsler and Riemannian geometry are not purely contact-topological phenomena.
The results of this paper have been greatly superseded by those in the paper "Contact geometry and isosystolic inequalities" (arXiv:1109.4253) by the same authors.
For a Riemannian metric $g$ on the two-sphere, let $\ell_{\min}(g)$ be the length of the shortest closed geodesic and $\ell_{\max}(g)$ be the length of the longest simple closed geodesic. We prove that if the curvature of $g$ is positive and sufficiently pinched, then the sharp systolic inequalities \[ \ell_{\rm min}(g)^2 \leq π\ {\rm Area}(S^2,g) \leq \ell_{\max}(g)^2, \] hold, and each of these two inequalities is an equality if and only if the metric $g$ is Zoll. The first inequality answers positively a conjecture of Babenko and Balacheff. The proof combines arguments from Riemannian and s…
Gromov's universal filling inequalities relate the filling radius and the filling volume of a Riemannian manifold to its volume. The main result of the present article is that in dimensions at least three the optimal constants in the filling inequalities depend only on dimension and orientability, not on the manifold itself. This contrasts with the analogous situation for the optimal systolic inequality, which does depend on the manifold.
Given a closed manifold M, we prove the upper bound of (n+d)/2 for the length of a product of systoles that can form a curvature-free lower bound for the total volume of M, in the spirit of M. Gromov's systolic inequalities. Here n is the dimension of M, while d is the is the cohomological dimension of its fundamental group. We apply this upper bound to show that, in the case of a 4-manifold, the Lusternik--Schnirelmann category is an upper bound for such length. Furthermore we prove a systolic inequality on a manifold M with b_1(M)=2 in the presence of a nontrivial self-linking class of the t…
A long-standing open problem in systolic geometry asks whether a Riemannian metric on the real projective space whose volume equals that of the canonical metric, but is not isometric to it, must necessarily carry a periodic geodesic of length smaller than π. A contact-geometric reformulation of systolic geometry and the use of canonical perturbation theory allow us to solve a parametric version of this problem. Namely, we show that if g_s is a smooth volume-preserving deformation of the canonical metric and at s=0 the deformation is not tangent to all orders to trivial deformations (i.e., to d…
We carry out calculations of Orlicz cohomology for some basic Riemannian manifolds (the real line, the hyperbolic plane, the ball). Relationship between Orlicz cohomology and Poincaré--Sobolev--Orlicz-type inequalities is discussed.
We present a new optimal systolic inequality for a closed Riemannian manifold X, which generalizes a number of earlier inequalities, including that of C. Loewner. We characterize the boundary case of equality in terms of the geometry of the Abel-Jacobi map, A_X, of X. For an extremal metric, the map A_X turns out to be a Riemannian submersion with minimal fibers, onto a flat torus. We characterize the base of J_X in terms of an extremal problem for Euclidean lattices, studied by A.-M. Bergé and J. Martinet. Given a closed manifold X that admits a submersion F to its Jacobi torus T^{b_1(X)}, we…
We prove certain optimal systolic inequalities for a closed Riemannian manifold (X,g), depending on a pair of parameters, n and b. Here n is the dimension of X, while b is its first Betti number. The proof of the inequalities involves constructing Abel-Jacobi maps from X to its Jacobi torus T^b, which are area-decreasing (on b-dimensional areas), with respect to suitable norms. These norms are the stable norm of g, the conformally invariant norm, as well as other L^p-norms. The case of equality is characterized in terms of the criticality of the lattice of deck transformations of T^b, while th…
We explain how the generalized Milnor-Wood inequality for reductive representations of a cocompact complex-hyperbolic lattice into a Hermitian Lie group translates, under the non-abelian Hodge correspondence, into various kinds of Milnor-Wood inequalities for Higgs bundles. This clarifies the relation between the representation theoretic generalized Milnor-Wood inequality and the various different versions of Milnor-Wood inequalities for Higgs bundles that are known in the literature.
We study the relation between Sobolev inequalities for differential forms on a Riemannian manifold $(M,g)$ and the $L_{q,p}$-cohomology of that manifold. The $L_{q,p}$-cohomology of $(M,g)$ is defined to be the quotient of the space of closed differential forms in $L^p(M)$ modulo the exact forms which are exterior differentials of forms in $L^q(M)$.
We study spectral behavior of the complex Laplacian on forms with values in the $k^{\text{th}}$ tensor power of a holomorphic line bundle over a smoothly bounded domain with degenerated boundary in a complex manifold. In particular, we prove that in the two dimensional case, a pseudoconvex domain is of finite type if and only if for any positive constant $C$, the number of eigenvalues of the $\overline\partial$-Neumann Laplacian less than or equal to $Ck$ grows polynomially as $k$ tends to infinity.
We establish an equivariant generalization of the Novikov inequalities which allow to estimate the topology of the set of critical points of a closed basic invariant form by means of twisted equivariant cohomology of the manifold. We apply these inequalities to study cohomology of the fixed points set of a symplectic torus action. We show that in this case our inequalities are perfect, i.e. they are in fact equalities.
We develop the theory of twisted L^2-cohomology and twisted spectral invariants for flat Hilbertian bundles over compact manifolds. They can be viewed as functions on the first de Rham cohomology of M and they generalize the standard notions. A new feature of the twisted L^2-cohomology theory is that in addition to satisfying the standard L^2 Morse inequalities, they also satisfy certain asymptotic L^2 Morse inequalities. These reduce to the standard Morse inequalities in the finite dimensional case, and when the Morse 1-form is exact. We define the extended twisted L^2 de Rham cohomology and …
We explain a general construction through which concave elliptic operators on complex manifolds give rise to concave functions on cohomology. In particular, this leads to generalized versions of the Khovanskii-Teissier inequalities.
If a closed smooth n-manifold M admits a finite cover whose Z/2Z-cohomology has the maximal cup-length, then for any riemannian metric g on M, we show that the systole Sys(M,g) and the volume Vol(M,g) of the riemannian manifold (M,g) are related by the following isosystolic inequality: Sys(M,g)^n \leq n! Vol(M,g). The inequality can be regarded as a generalization of Burago and Hebda's inequality for closed essential surfaces and as a refinement of Guth's inequality for closed n-manifolds whose Z/2Z-cohomology has the maximal cup-length. We also establish the same inequality in the context of …
Transcendental holomorphic Morse inequalities aim at characterizing the positivity of transcendental cohomology classes of type $(1,1)$. In this paper, we prove a weak version of Demailly's conjecture on transcendental Morse inequalities on compact Kähler manifolds. And as a consequence, we partially improve a result of Boucksom-Demailly-Paun-Peternell.
We establish an equivariant generalization of the Novikov inequalities which allow to estimate the topology of the set of critical points of a closed basic invariant 1-form by means of twisted equivariant cohomology of the manifold. We test and apply our inequalities in the case of a finite group. As an application we obtain Novikov type inequalities for a manifold with boundary.
P. Buser and P. Sarnak showed in 1994 that the maximum, over the moduli space of Riemann surfaces of genus s, of the least conformal length of a nonseparating loop, is logarithmic in s. We present an application of (polynomially) dense Euclidean packings, to estimates for an analogous 2-dimensional conformal systolic invariant of a 4-manifold X with indefinite intersection form. The estimate turns out to be polynomial, rather than logarithmic, in χ(X), if the conjectured surjectivity of the period map is correct. Such surjectivity is targeted by the current work in gauge theory. The surjectivi…
In this paper we define coeffective de Rham cohomology for basic forms on a $K$--contact or Sasakian manifold $M$ and we discuss its relation with usually basic cohomology of $M$. When $M$ is of finite type (for instance it is compact) several inequalities relating some basic coeffective numbers to classical basic Betti numbers of $M$ are obtained. In the case of Sasakian manifolds, we define and study coeffective Dolbeault and Bott-Chern cohomologies for basic forms. Also, in this case, we prove some Hodge decomposition theorems for coeffective basic de Rham cohomology, relating this cohomolo…
