Higher Order Schwarzians for Geodesic Flows, Moment Sequences, and the Radius of Adapted Complexifications

Abstract

In the first part of the paper, comprising section 1 through 6, we introduce a sequence of functions in the tangent bundle TM of any smooth two-dimensional manifold M with smooth Riemannian metric g that correspond to the higher order Schwarzians of the linearized geodesic flow. With these functions and a classical theorem of Loewner on analytic continuation we are able to characterize the existence of the adapted complex structure induced by g on the set T^RM of vectors in TM of length up to R, equivalently for M compact, to the existence of a Grauert tube of radius R in terms of infinite Hankel matrices involving these Schwarzian functions. The basic characterization so obtained can be expressed as a sequence of differential inequalities of increasing order polynomial in the covariant derivatives of the Gauss curvature on M and in π/R that should be regarded as the higher order versions of a curvature inequality by L. Lempert and R. Szöke. The second part of the paper, sections 7 through 11, includes a discussion of the rank of the infinite Hankel matrix of the Schwarzians from part 1 and of new Schwarzians defined now for purely imaginary radius, as well as some computations and examples. A characterization of the existence of the adapted structure on T^RM in terms of moment sequences with parameters R and v in TM is also noted.