Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2010/iii/paper-14/2/b/solution

The geodesic flow of a closed negatively curved surface is a topologically transitive Anosov flow. In particular, its Jacobi-field hyperbolicity and the usual negative-curvature transitivity theorem allow the smooth Livsic theorem to be applied. Set . The given closed-geodesic integrals are exactly its periodic-orbit obstructions on . Therefore
We make the differential operators and signs explicit. On the unit tangent bundle, let generate positive fibre rotation, be the geodesic vector field and . For the canonical coframe of a surface unit tangent bundle, write
and let be the Levi-Civita connection form with . This uses for a one-form, keeping for the given tensor. The dual frame is , and the structure equations are
These follow by writing the two horizontal forms as a rotated local orthonormal coframe and , with its connection 1-form. Equivalently, differentiating the sine and cosine components of twice in the fibre angle gives
The curvature equation also gives . The Liouville volume of a surface geodesic flow will be taken positive in the base/positive-fibre orientation, namely .
In an oriented orthonormal frame at , put . The symmetric tensor evaluation is
Since , this proves .
The Lie bracket of vector fields identities give an operator identity that supplies the required equation. First,
Using and , differentiate this expression once more to obtain
For and , the first term vanishes by the explicit fibre calculation. Hence

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