Multiple closed geodesics on Finsler 3-dimensional sphere

Abstract

In 1973, Katok constructed a non-degenerate (also called bumpy) Finsler metric on $S^3$ with exactly four prime closed geodesics. Then Anosov conjectured that four should be the optimal lower bound of the number of prime closed geodesics on every Finsler $S^3$. In this paper, we prove this conjecture for a bumpy Finsler $S^3$ if the Morse index of any prime closed geodesic is nonzero.