Kissing numbers of closed hyperbolic manifolds

Abstract

We prove an upper bound for the number of shortest closed geodesics in a closed hyperbolic manifold of any dimension in terms of its volume and systole, generalizing a theorem of Parlier for surfaces. We also obtain bounds on the number of primitive closed geodesics with length in a given interval that are uniform for all closed hyperbolic manifolds with bounded geometry. The proofs rely on the Selberg trace formula.