Geodesic string counting invariants and arithmetic of multiplicities

Abstract

We study rational valued counts of geodesic strings (reparametrization equivalence classes of closed geodesics) for complete Riemann-Finsler manifolds, based on the Fuller index of the geodesic flow. The main conceptual result is a product type formula for these counts. Combined with aspects of KAM theory, it yields the following sample phenomenon. Let $g$ be a generic Finsler metric on $T ^{2}$, sufficiently $C ^{\infty }$-close to a flat metric, and fix a prime $p$ and a nontrivial free homotopy class $β$. If there is a class $β$ $g$-geodesic string with multiplicity divisible by $p$, then there is another one. We also obtain arithmetic constraints on counts of closed geodesics in mapping tori and flat bundles, and constraints on the existence of negative sectional curvature metrics. These counts can be understood as a shadow of a conjectural orbifold Morse homology of the infinite-dimensional quotient stack $[LX/S^1]$.