Orbifolds and Systolic Inequalities

In this talk, I will first discuss some instances in which orbifolds occur in geometry and dynamics, in particular, in the context of billiards and systolic inequalities. Then I will present topological conditions for an orbifold to be a manifold together with applications to foliations and to Besse geodesic and Reeb flows (joint work with Manuel Amann, Marc Kegel and Marco Radeschi). Here a flow is called Besse if all its orbits are periodic. Such flows are related to systolic inequalities. Namely, I will explain a characterization of contact forms on 3-manifolds whose Reeb flow is Besse as local maximizers of certain ''higher" systolic ratios, and mention other related systolic-like inequalities (joint work with Alberto Abbondandolo, Marco Mazzucchelli and Tobias Soethe).