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 construct all metrics on X that realize equality in our inequality. While one can choose arbitrary metrics of fixed volume on the fibers of F, the horizontal space is chosen using a multi-parameter version of J. Moser's method of constructing volume-preserving flows.
The first paper in systolic geometry was published by Loewner's student P. M. Pu over half a century ago. Pu proved an inequality relating the systole and the area of an arbitrary metric on the real projective plane. We prove a stronger version of Pu's systolic inequality with a remainder term.
The article treats some questions around Gromov's filling area conjecture. It intended to show that any filling with volume $< 2 π$ would not be attained and to show a local systolic inequality, implying an a priori lower estimate on the total volume. The proof of both assertions, the second of which is wrong, suffered from a computational mistake.
We prove an upper bound on the systolic ratio of an orientable isometric filling of the circle equipped with a Riemannian metric. The bound depends only on the genus of isometric filling. We also apply the bound to the class of orientable isometric filling with a certain lower bound on the systole. We deduce that the Filling Area Conjecture holds true for this class when the genus is sufficiently large.
We show that Bonnesen's isoperimetic defect has a systolic analog for Loewner's torus inequality. The isosystolic defect is expressed in terms of the probabilistic variance of the conformal factor of the metric g with respect to the flat metric of unit area in the conformal class of g.
We define Dirichlet type series associated with homology length spectra of Riemannian, or Finsler, manifolds, or polyhedra, and investigate some of their analytical properties. As a consequence we obtain an inequality analogous to Gromov's classical intersystolic inequality, but taking the whole homology length spectrum into account rather than just the systole.
We apply a local systolic-diastolic inequality for contact forms and odd-symplectic forms on three-manifolds to bound the magnetic length of closed curves with prescribed geodesic curvature (also known as magnetic geodesics) on an oriented closed surface. Our results hold when the prescribed curvature is either close to a Zoll one or large enough.
We analyze the probabilistic variance of a solution of Liouville's equation for curvature, given suitable bounds on the Gaussian curvature. The related systolic geometry was recently studied by Horowitz, Katz, and Katz, where we obtained a strengthening of Loewner's torus inequality containing a "defect term", similar to Bonnesen's strengthening of the isoperimetric inequality. Here the analogous isosystolic defect term depends on the metric and "measures" its deviation from being flat. Namely, the defect is the variance of the function f which appears as the conformal factor expressing the me…
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 an optimal systolic inequality for CAT(0) metrics on a genus~2 surface. We use a Voronoi cell technique, introduced by C.~Bavard in the hyperbolic context. The equality is saturated by a flat singular metric in the conformal class defined by the smooth completion of the curve y^2=x^5-x. Thus, among all CAT(0) metrics, the one with the best systolic ratio is composed of six flat regular octagons centered at the Weierstrass points of the Bolza surface.
The aim of this paper is to formulate a local systolic inequality for odd-symplectic forms (also known as Hamiltonian structures) and to establish it in some basic cases. Let $Ω$ be an odd-symplectic form on an oriented closed manifold $Σ$ of odd dimension. We say that $Ω$ is Zoll if the trajectories of the flow given by $Ω$ are the orbits of a free $S^1$-action. After defining the volume of $Ω$ and the action of its periodic orbits, we prove that the volume and the action satisfy a polynomial equation, provided $Ω$ is Zoll. This builds the equality case of a conjectural systolic inequality fo…
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 …
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…
Let $α$ be a contact form on a connected closed three-manifold $Σ$. The systolic ratio of $α$ is defined as $ρ_{\mathrm{sys}}(α):=\tfrac{1}{\mathrm{Vol}(α)}T_{\min}(α)^2$, where $T_{\min}(α)$ and $\mathrm{Vol}(α)$ denote the minimal period of periodic Reeb orbits and the contact volume. The form $α$ is said to be Zoll if its Reeb flow generates a free $S^1$-action on $Σ$. We prove that the set of Zoll contact forms on $Σ$ locally maximises the systolic ratio in the $C^3$-topology. More precisely, we show that every Zoll form $α_*$ admits a $C^3$-neighbourhood $\mathcal U$ in the space of conta…
A compact manifold is called Bieberbach if it carries a flat Riemannian metric. Bieberbach manifolds satisfy an isosystolic inequality by a general and fundamental result of M. Gromov. In dimension 3, there exist four classes of non-orientable Bieberbach manifolds up to an affine diffeomorphism. In this paper, We prove the existence on each diffeomorphism class of non-orientable Bieberbach 3-manifolds of a two-parameter family of singular Riemannian metrics that are systolically extremal in their conformal class. The proof uses a one-parameter family of singular Riemannian metrics on the Klein…
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 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.
In 1972, Marcel Berger defined a metric invariant that captures the `size' of k-dimensional homology of a Riemannian manifold. This invariant came to be called the k-dimensional SYSTOLE. He asked if the systoles can be constrained by the volume, in the spirit of the 1949 theorem of C. Loewner. We construct metrics, inspired by M. Gromov's 1993 example, which give a negative answer for large classes of manifolds, for the product of systoles in a pair of complementary dimensions. An obstruction (restriction on k modulo 4) to constructing further examples by our methods seems to reside in the fre…
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.
It follows from a theorem of Gromov that the stable systolic category of a closed manifold is bounded from below by the rational cup-length of the manifold. In the paper we study the inequality in the opposite direction. In particular, combining our results with Gromov's theorem, we prove the equality of stable systolic category and rational cup-length for simply connected manifolds of dimension less than 8.
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 prove that C. Loewner's inequality for the torus is satisfied by all hyperelliptic surfaces X, as well. We first construct the Loewner loops on the (mildly singular) companion tori, locally isometric to X away from the Weierstrass points. The loops are then transplanted to X, and surgered to obtain a Loewner loop on X. In higher genus, we exploit M. Gromov's area estimates for epsilon-regular metrics on X.
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 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…
Let $Σ$ be a connected closed three-manifold, and let $t_Σ$ be the order of the torsion subgroup of $H_1(Σ;\mathbb Z)$. For a contact form $α$ on $Σ$, we denote by $\mathrm{Volume}(α)$ the contact volume of $α$, and by $T_{\min}(α)$ and $T_{\max}(α)$ the minimal period and the maximal period of prime periodic orbits of the Reeb flow of $α$ respectively. We say that $α$ is Zoll if its Reeb flow generates a free $S^1$-action on $Σ$. We prove that every Zoll contact form $α_*$ on $Σ$ admits a $C^3$-neighbourhood $\mathcal U$ in the space of contact forms such that \[ t_ΣT_{\min}(α)^2\leq \mathrm{…
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…
Let $(M,g)$ be a closed, oriented, Riemannian manifold of dimension $m$. We call a systole a shortest non-contractible loop in $(M,g)$ and denote by $sys(M,g)$ its length. Let $SR(M,g)=\frac{{sys(M,g)}^m}{vol(M,g)}$ be the systolic ratio of $(M,g)$. Denote by $SR(k)$ the supremum of $SR(S,g)$ among the surfaces of fixed genus $k \neq 0$. In Section 2 we construct surfaces with large systolic ratio from surfaces with systolic ratio close to the optimal value $SR(k)$ using cutting and pasting techniques. For all $k_i \geq 1$, this enables us to prove: $$\frac{1}{SR(k_1 + k_2)} \leq \frac{1}{SR(k…
We prove an inequality of Bonnesen type for the real projective plane, generalizing Pu's systolic inequality for positively-curved metrics. The remainder term in the inequality, analogous to that in Bonnesen's inequality, is a function of R-r (suitably normalized), where R and r are respectively the circumradius and the inradius of the Weyl-Lewy Euclidean embedding of the orientable double cover. We exploit John ellipsoids of a convex body and Pogorelov's ridigity theorem.
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…
Our main result gives an improved bound on the filling areas of closed curves in Banach spaces which are not closed geodesics. As applications we show rigidity of Pu's classical systolic inequality and investigate the isoperimetric constants of normed spaces. The latter has further applications concerning the regularity of minimal surfaces in Finsler manifolds.
Let X be a finite 2-complex with unfree fundamental group. We prove lower bounds for the area of a metric on X, in terms of the square of the least length of a noncontractible loop in X. We thus establish a uniform systolic inequality for all unfree 2-complexes. Our inequality improves the constant in M. Gromov's inequality in this dimension. The argument relies on the Reeb graph and the coarea formula, combined with an induction on the number of freely indecomposable factors in Grushko's decomposition of the fundamental group. More specifically, we construct a kind of a Reeb space ``minimal m…
We adapt the theory of currents in metric spaces, as developed by the first-mentioned author in collaboration with B. Kirchheim, to currents with coefficients in Z_p. Building on S. Wenger's work in the orientable case, we obtain isoperimetric inequalities mod(p) in Banach spaces and we apply these inequalities to provide a proof of Gromov's filling radius inequality (and therefore also the systolic inequality) which applies to nonorientable manifolds, as well. With this goal in mind, we use the Ekeland principle to provide quasi-minimizers of the mass mod(p) in the homology class, and use the…
We prove a new version of isoperimetric inequality: Given a positive real $m$, a Banach space $B$, a closed subset $Y$ of metric space $X$ and a continuous map $f:Y \rightarrow B$ with $f(Y)$ compact $$\inf_FHC_{m+1}(F(X))\leq c(m)HC_m(f(Y))^{\frac{m+1}{m}},$$ where $HC_m$ denotes the $m$-dimensional Hausdorff content, the infimum is taken over the set of all continuous maps $F:X\longrightarrow B$ such that $F(y)=f(y)$ for all $y\in Y$, and $c(m)$ depends only on $m$. Moreover, one can find $F$ with a nearly minimal $HC_{m+1}$ such that its image lies in the $C(m)HC_m(f(Y))^{1\over m}$-neighbo…
A carpet is a metric space which is homeomorphic to the standard Sierpiński carpet in $\mathbb{R}^2$, or equivalently, in $S^2$. A carpet is called thin if its Hausdorff dimension is $<2$. A metric space is called Q-Loewner if its $Q$-dimensional Hausdorff measure is Q-Ahlfors regular and if it satisfies a $(1,Q)$-Poincaré inequality. As we will show, $Q$-Loewner planar metric spaces are always carpets, and admit quasisymmetric embeddings into the plane. In this paper, for every pair $(Q,Q')$, with $1<Q<Q'< 2$ we construct infinitely many pairwise quasi-symmetrically distinct $Q$-Loewner carpe…
Let $M^n$ be a closed Riemannian manifold. Larry Guth proved that there exists $c(n)$ with the following property: if for some $r>0$ the volume of each metric ball of radius $r$ is less than $({r\over c(n)})^n$, then there exists a continuous map from $M^n$ to a $(n-1)$-dimensional simplicial complex such that the inverse image of each point can be covered by a metric ball of radius $r$ in $M^n$. It was previously proven by Gromov that this result implies two by now famous Gromov's inequalities: $Fill Rad(M^n)\leq c(n)vol(M^n)^{1\over n}$ and, if $M^n$ is essential, then also $sys_1(M^n)\leq 6…
We prove an optimal systolic inequality for nonpositively curved Dyck's surfaces. The extremal surface is flat with eight conical singularities, six of angle theta and two of angle 9pi - theta, for a suitable theta with cos(theta) in Q(sqrt{19}). Relying on some delicate capacity estimates, we also show that the extremal surface is not conformally equivalent to the hyperbolic surface with maximal systole, yielding a first example of systolic extremality with this behavior.
Motivated by understanding the limiting case of a certain systolic inequality we study compact Riemannian manifolds having all harmonic 1-forms of constant length. We give complete characterizations as far as Kähler and hyperbolic geometries are concerned. In the second part of the paper, we give algebraic and topological obstructions to the existence of a geometrically 2-formal Kähler metric, at the level of the second cohomology group. A strong interaction with almost Kähler geometry is to be noted. In complex dimension 3, we list all the possible values of the second Betti number of a geome…
We show that the Kuratowski imbedding of a Riemannian manifold in L^\infty, exploited in Gromov's proof of the systolic inequality for essential manifolds, admits an approximation by a (1+C)-bi-Lipschitz (onto its image), finite-dimensional imbedding for every C>0. Our key tool is the first variation formula thought of as a real statement in first-order logic, in the context of non-standard analysis.
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.
We show that the geodesic period spectrum of a Riemannian 2-orbifold all of whose geodesics are closed depends, up to a constant, only on its orbifold topology and compute it. In the manifold case we recover the fact proved by Gromoll, Grove and Pries that all prime geodesics have the same length. In the appendix we partly strengthen our result in terms of conjugacy of contact forms and explain how to deduce rigidity on the real projective plane based on a systolic inequality due to Pu. (We do not use a Lusternik-Schnirelmann type theorem on the existence of at least three simple closed geodes…
