The explicit construction of Finsler metrics with special curvature properties

The S-curvature is one of most important non-Riemannian quantities in Finsler geometry. It delicately related to Riemannian quantities. This note gives an explicit construction of 3-parameter family of non-locally projectively flat Finsler metrics of non-constant isotropic S-curvature. The necessary and sufficient condition that these Finsler metrics are of constant flag curvature is given.     

Finsler manifolds with nonpositive flag curvature and constant S-curvature

The flag curvature is a natural extension of the sectional curvature in Riemannian geometry, and the S-curvature is a non-Riemannian quantity which vanishes for Riemannian metrics. There are (incomplete) non-Riemannian Finsler metrics on an open subset in Rⁿ with negative flag curvature and constant S-curvature. In this paper, we are going to show a global rigidity theorem that every Finsler metric with negative flag curvature and constant S-curvature must be Riemannian if the manifold is compact. We also study the nonpositive flag curvature case.supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (10371138).     

Finsler metrics with special curvature properties

In this paper, we discuss the relationship between the flag curvature and some non-Riemannian quantities of Finsler metrics of scalar curvature. In particular, we characterize projectively flat Finsler metrics with isotropic S-curvature.     

Naturally reductive homogeneous Finsler spaces

In this paper, we study naturally reductive Finsler metrics. We first give a sufficient and necessary condition for a Finsler metric to be naturally reductive with respect to certain transitive group of isometries. Then we study in detail the left invariant naturally reductive metrics on compact Lie groups and give a method to construct the non-Riemannian ones. Further, we give a classification of left invariant naturally reductive metrics on nilpotent Lie groups. Finally, we give a classification of all the naturally reductive Finsler spaces of dimension less or qual to 4. As applications, we obtain some rigidity theorems about naturally reductive Finsler metrics. Namely, any left invariant non-symmetric naturally reductive Finsler metric on a compact simple Lie group or an indecomposable nilpotent Lie group must be Riemannian. On the other hand, we provide a very convenient method to construct non-symmetric Berwald spaces which are neither Riemannian nor locally Minkowskian, a kind of spaces which are sought after in the book by Bao et al. (An introduction to Riemann–Finsler geometry, GTM 200, 2000).     

On an Important Non-Riemannian Quantity in Finsler Geometry

In this paper, we study a non-Riemannian quantity ${\bar{{\bf E}}}$ -curvature. We prove that if F is a projectively flat Finsler metric of nonzero flag curvature, then it is Riemannian if and only if ${{\bar{\bf E}}}$ -curvature vanishes. Further, we characterize the Einstein-Douglas metrics with vanishing ${{\bar{\bf E}}}$ -curvature.     

General spherically symmetric Finsler metrics with constant Ricci and flag curvature

In this paper, we investigate the flag curvature of a special class of Finsler metrics called general spherically symmetric Finsler metrics, which are defined by a Euclidean metric and two related 1-forms. We find equations to characterize the class of metrics with constant Ricci curvature (tensor) and constant flag curvature. Moreover, we study general spherically symmetric Finsler metrics with the vanishing non-Riemannian quantity χ-curvature. In particular, we construct some new projectively flat Finsler metrics of constant flag curvature.     

Finsler metrics of scalar flag curvature with special non-Riemannian curvature properties

In this paper, we study Finsler metrics of scalar flag curvature. We find that a non-Riemannian quantity is closely related to the flag curvature. We show that the flag curvature is weakly isotropic if and only if this non-Riemannian quantity takes a special form. This will lead to a better understanding on Finsler metrics of scalar flag curvature.      

On Einstein Matsumoto metrics

Einstein metrics are solutions to Einstein field equation in General Relativity containing the Ricci-flat metrics. Einstein Finsler metrics which represent a non-Riemannian stage for the extensions of metric gravity, provide an interesting source of geometric issues and the (α,β)-metric is an important class of Finsler metrics appearing iteratively in physical studies. It is proved that every n-dimensional (n≥3) Einstein Matsumoto metric is a Ricci-flat metric with vanishing S-curvature. The main result can be regarded as a second Schur type Lemma for Matsumoto metrics.     

Multiple closed geodesics on 3-spheres

This paper is devoted to a study on closed geodesics on Finsler and Riemannian spheres. We call a prime closed geodesic on a Finsler manifold rational, if the basic normal form decomposition (cf. [Y. Long, Bott formula of the Maslov-type index theory, Pacific J. Math. 187 (1999) 113-149]) of its linearized Poincaré map contains no 2×2 rotation matrix with rotation angle which is an irrational multiple of π, or irrational otherwise. We prove that if there exists only one prime closed geodesic on a d-dimensional irreversible Finsler sphere with d?2, it cannot be rational. Then we further prove that there exist always at least two distinct prime closed geodesics on every irreversible Finsler 3-dimensional sphere. Our method yields also at least two geometrically distinct closed geodesics on every reversible Finsler as well as Riemannian 3-dimensional sphere. We prove also such results hold for all compact simply connected 3-dimensional manifolds with irreversible or reversible Finsler as well as Riemannian metrics.     

On doubly warped product Finsler manifolds

In this paper, we introduce horizontal and vertical warped product Finsler manifolds. We prove that every C-reducible or proper Berwaldian doubly warped product Finsler manifold is Riemannian. Then, we find the relation between Riemannian curvatures of doubly warped product Finsler manifold and its components, and consider the cases that this manifold is flat or has scalar flag curvature. We define the doubly warped Sasaki-Matsumoto metric for warped product manifolds and find a condition under which the horizontal and vertical tangent bundles are totally geodesic. We obtain some conditions under which a foliated manifold reduces to a Reinhart manifold. Finally, we study an almost complex structure on the tangent bundle of a doubly warped product Finsler manifold.     

Fastriemannsche Finslersche Metriken

We regard special Finsler manifolds which are almost Riemannian. These Finsler metrics allow to construct globally an osculating Riemannian metric with a LEVI-CIVITA connection that can be well described by Finslerian invariants. An application of this concept will be given in a paper about the pinching problem, which will be published soon. For locally almost euclidian metrics we proof generalisations of the comparison theorem of RAUCH and the theorem of SHIKATA.

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Diese Arbeit beruht auf meiner Dissertation (Mainz 1970) und wurde unterstützt von der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft.     

The index growth and multiplicity of closed geodesics

In the recent paper [31] of Long and Duan (2009), we classified closed geodesics on Finsler manifolds into rational and irrational two families, and gave a complete understanding on the index growth properties of iterates of rational closed geodesics. This study yields that a rational closed geodesic cannot be the only closed geodesic on every irreversible or reversible (including Riemannian) Finsler sphere, and that there exist at least two distinct closed geodesics on every compact simply connected irreversible or reversible (including Riemannian) Finsler 3-dimensional manifold. In this paper, we study the index growth properties of irrational closed geodesics on Finsler manifolds. This study allows us to extend results in [31] of Long and Duan (2009) on rational, and in [12] of Duan and Long (2007), [39] of Rademacher (2010), and [40] of Rademacher (2008) on completely non-degenerate closed geodesics on spheres and CP² to every compact simply connected Finsler manifold. Then we prove the existence of at least two distinct closed geodesics on every compact simply connected irreversible or reversible (including Riemannian) Finsler 4-dimensional manifold.     

The first eigenvalue of Finsler p-Laplacian

The eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of p-Laplacian on Finsler manifolds are defined to be critical values and critical points of its canonical energy functional. Based on it, we generalize some eigenvalue comparison theorems of p-Laplacian on Riemannian manifolds, such as Lichnerowicz type estimate, Obata type theorem and Mckean type theorem, to the Finsler setting. Not only that, the Lichnerowicz type estimate we obtained is even better than the corresponding one in Riemannian geometry.     

On the non-Riemannian quantity H in Finsler geometry

In this paper, we study a new non-Riemannian quantity H defined by the S-curvature. We find that the non-Riemannian quantity is closely related to S-curvature. We characterize Randers metrics of almost isotropic S-curvature if and only if they have almost vanishing H-curvature. Furthermore, the Randers metrics actually have zero S-curvature if and only if they have vanishing H-curvature.     

Gromov-hyperbolicity and transitivity of geodesic flows in n-dimensional Finsler manifolds

We show that the geodesic flow of a compact Finsler manifold without conjugate points is transitive provided that the universal covering satisfies the uniform Finsler visibility condition. This result is a nontrivial extension of a well known theorem due to Eberlein for Riemannian manifolds. For doing so, we introduce suitable Finsler versions of the concepts of Gromov's δ-hyperbolicity and Eberlein's visibility, and study their consequences.     

Existence and Liouville theorems for V -harmonic maps from complete manifolds

We establish existence and uniqueness theorems for V-harmonic maps from complete noncompact manifolds. This class of maps includes Hermitian harmonic maps, Weyl harmonic maps, affine harmonic maps, and Finsler harmonic maps from a Finsler manifold into a Riemannian manifold. We also obtain a Liouville type theorem for V-harmonic maps. In addition, we prove a V-Laplacian comparison theorem under the Bakry-Emery Ricci condition.     

Lipschitz and path isometric embeddings of metric spaces

We prove that each sub-Riemannian manifold can be embedded in some Euclidean space preserving the length of all the curves in the manifold. The result is an extension of Nash C ¹ Embedding Theorem. For more general metric spaces the same result is false, e.g., for Finsler non-Riemannian manifolds. However, we also show that any metric space of finite Hausdorff dimension can be embedded in some Euclidean space via a Lipschitz map.     

On weakly harmonic maps from Finsler to Riemannian manifolds

We prove global C0,α$C^{0,\alpha }$-estimates for harmonic maps from Finsler manifolds into regular balls of Riemannian target manifolds generalizing results of Giaquinta, Hildebrandt, and Hildebrandt, Jost and Widman from Riemannian to Finsler domains. As consequences we obtain a Liouville theorem for entire harmonic maps on simple Finsler manifolds, and an existence theorem for harmonic maps from Finsler manifolds into regular balls of a Riemannian target.     

Dirichlet spectrum and heat content

Let M be a complete Riemannian manifold and D⊂M a smoothly bounded domain with compact closure. We use Brownian motion to study the relationship between the Dirichlet spectrum of D and the heat content asymptotics of D. Central to our investigation is a sequence of invariants associated to D defined using exit time moments. We prove that our invariants determine that part of the spectrum corresponding to eigenspaces which are not orthogonal to constant functions, that our invariants determine the heat content asymptotics associated to the manifold, and that when the manifold is a generic domain in Euclidean space, the invariants determine the Dirichlet spectrum.