The Morse index theorem in semi-Riemannian geometry

We prove a semi-Riemannian version of the celebrated Morse Index Theorem for geodesics in semi-Riemannian manifolds; we consider the general case of both endpoints variable on two submanifolds. The key role of the theory is played by the notion of the Maslov index of a semi-Riemannian geodesic, which is a homological invariant and it substitutes the notion of geometric index in Riemannian geometry. Under generic circumstances, the Maslov index of a geodesic is computed as a sort of algebraic count of the conjugate points along the geodesic. For nonpositive definite metrics the index of the index form is always infinite; in this paper we prove that the space of all variations of a given geodesic has a natural splitting into two infinite dimensional subspaces, and the Maslov index is given by the difference of the index and the coindex of the restriction of the index form to these subspaces. In the case of variable endpoints, two suitable correction terms, defined in terms of the endmanifolds, are added to the equality. Using appropriate change of variables, the theory is entirely extended to the more general case of symplectic differential systems, that can be obtained as linearizations of the Hamilton equations. The main results proven in this paper were announced in Piccione and Tausk (C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris 331 (5) (2000) 385).