Closed geodesics in collapsing K3 surfaces

Abstract Motivated by some conjectures originating in the physics literature, we use Foscolo’s construction of Ricci-flat Kähler metrics on K3 surfaces to locate, with high precision, several closed geodesics and compute their index (their length is also approximately known). Interestingly, the construction of these geodesics is related to an open problem in electrostatics posed by Maxwell in 1873. Our construction is also of interest to modern physicists working on (supersymmetric) non-linear sigma models with target space such a K3 surface.

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Publication Details

Journal
Journal für die reine und angewandte Mathematik (Crelles Journal)
Published
2026-10-27
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1515/crelle-2026-0088
Primary Topic
Geometry and complex manifolds
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Closed geodesics in collapsing K3 surfaces

Gonçalo Oliveira
Journal für die reine und angewandte Mathematik (Crelles Journal)
Geometry and complex manifolds
article

Closed geodesics in collapsing K3 surfaces

Gonçalo Oliveira
article en

Abstract

Abstract Motivated by some conjectures originating in the physics literature, we use Foscolo’s construction of Ricci-flat Kähler metrics on K3 surfaces to locate, with high precision, several closed geodesics and compute their index (their length is also approximately known). Interestingly, the construction of these geodesics is related to an open problem in electrostatics posed by Maxwell in 1873. Our construction is also of interest to modern physicists working on (supersymmetric) non-linear sigma models with target space such a K3 surface.

Journal für die reine und angewandte Mathematik (Crelles Journal)
University of Lisbon (PT), Instituto Superior Técnico (PT), Centro de Análise Matemática Geometria e Sistemas Dinâmicos (PT)
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Openalex Percentile: Top 7%
Geometry and complex manifolds
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