Folheações riemannianas e geodésicas fechadas em orbifolds

Abstract

The present thesis is devoted to the study of closed geodesics in some types of orbifolds. First, we present the notion of Riemannian foliation and their equivalent definitions using foliation atlas and Riemannian submersions. Aiming to understand the leaf space of certain foliations, we introduce the concept of orbifold. Also, the notion of orbifolds will be addressed via pseudogroups. For compact Riemannian good orbifolds, we will prove the existence of non-trivial closed geodesics. The main objective of this work is to obtain closed geodesics in compact Riemannian orbifolds by employing the shortening process with respect to Riemannian foliations. Following the approach of Alexandrino and Javaloyes [5], we also discuss the existence of closed geodesics in the leaf spaces for some classes of singular Riemannian foliations.