An Index Theory for Paths that are Solutions of a Class of Strongly Indefinite Variational Problems

Abstract

We prove a generalized version of the Morse index theorem for geodesics endowed with a non positive definite metric tensor (semi-Riemannian manifolds). We apply the result to obtain lower estimates on the number of geodesics joining two fixed non conjugate points in certain classes of manifolds. More specifically, we consider semi-Riemannian manifolds $(M,\mathfrak g)$ admitting a smooth distribution spanned by commuting Killing vector fields and containing a maximal negative distribution for $\mathfrak$. In particular we obtain Morse relations for stationary semi-Riemannian manifolds and for the {\em Gödel-type} manifolds.