Lattices and Periodic Geodesics in Pseudoriemannian 2-step Nilpotent Lie Groups

Abstract

We give a basic treatment of lattices $\Gamma$ in these groups. Certain tori $T_F$ and $T_B$ provide the model fiber and the base for a submersion of $\Gamma\backslash N$. This submersion may not be pseudoriemannian in the usual sense, because the tori may be degenerate. We then begin the study of periodic geodesics in these compact nilmanifolds, obtaining a complete calculation of the period spectrum of certain flat spaces.