On the semi-Riemannian bumpy metric theorem

Abstract

We prove the semi-Riemannian bumpy metric theorem using equivariant variational genericity. The theorem states that, on a given compact manifold $M$, the set of semi-Riemannian metrics that admit only nondegenerate closed geodesics is generic relatively to the $C^k$-topology, $k=2,...,\infty$, in the set of metrics of a given index on $M$. A higher order genericity Riemannian result of Klingenberg and Takens is extended to semi-Riemannian geometry.

17 pages