Genericity of nondegenerate geodesics with general boundary conditions

Abstract

Let $M$ be a possibly noncompact manifold. We prove, generically in the $C^k$-topology ($2\leq k\leq \infty$), that semi-Riemannian metrics of a given index on $M$ do not possess any degenerate geodesics satisfying suitable boundary conditions. This extends a result of L. Biliotti, M. A. Javaloyes and P. Piccione [Genericity of nondegenerate critical points and Morse geodesic functionals, Indiana Univ. Math. J. 58 (2009), 1797–1830] for geodesics with fixed endpoints to the case where endpoints lie on a compact submanifold $\mathcal P\subset M\times M$ that satisfies an admissibility condition. Such condition holds, for example, when $\mathcal P$ is transversal to the diagonal $\Delta\subset M\times M$. Further aspects of these boundary conditions are discussed and general conditions under which metrics without degenerate geodesics are $C^k$-generic are given.