Finsler geodesics, periodic Reeb orbits, and open books

Abstract

We survey some results on the existence (and non-existence) of periodic Reeb orbits on contact manifolds, both in the open and closed case. We place these statements in the context of Finsler geometry by including a proof of the folklore theorem that the Finsler geodesic flow can be interpreted as a Reeb flow. As a mild extension of previous results we present existence statements on periodic Reeb orbits on contact manifolds with suitable supporting open books.