Existence of periodic orbits for geodesible vector fields on closed 3-manifolds

Abstract

In this paper we deal with the existence of periodic orbits of geodesible vector fields on closed 3-manifolds. A vector field is geodesible if there exists a Riemannian metric on the ambient manifold making its orbits geodesics. In particular, Reeb vector fields and vector fields that admit a global section are geodesible. We will classify the closed 3-manifolds that admit aperiodic volume preserving real analytic geodesible vector fields, and prove the existence of periodic orbits for real analytic geodesible vector fields (not volume preserving), when the 3-manifold is not a torus bundle over the circle. We will also prove the existence of periodic orbits of C2 geodesible vector fields in some closed 3-manifolds.