Naturally reductive homogeneous Randers spaces

In this paper, we study naturally reductive Randers metrics on homogeneous manifolds. We first prove that naturally reductive Randers metrics are of Berwald type. We then give an explicit formula for the flag curvature of naturally reductive Randers metrics. Finally a necessary and sufficient condition for invariant Randers metrics on homogeneous manifolds being naturally reductive is given.     

Isotropic submanifolds of pseudo-Riemannian spaces

The family of all the submanifolds of a given Riemannian or pseudo-Riemannian manifold is large enough to classify them into some interesting subfamilies such as minimal (maximal), totally geodesic, Einstein, etc. Most of these have been extensively studied by many authors, but as far as we know, no paper has hitherto been published on the class of isotropic submanifolds. The purpose of this paper is therefore to gain a better understanding of this interesting class of submanifolds that arise naturally in mathematics and physics by studying their relationships with other closely distinguished families.     

The existence of homogeneous geodesics in homogeneous pseudo-Riemannian and affine manifolds

It is well known that, in any homogeneous Riemannian manifold, there is at least one homogeneous geodesic through each point. For the pseudo-Riemannian case, even if we assume reductivity, this existence problem is still open. The standard way to deal with homogeneous geodesics in the pseudo-Riemannian case is to use the so-called “Geodesic Lemma”, which is a formula involving the inner product. We shall use a different approach: namely, we imbed the class of all homogeneous pseudo-Riemannian manifolds into the broader class of all homogeneous affine manifolds (possibly with torsion) and we apply a new, purely affine method to the existence problem. In dimension 2, it was solved positively in a previous article by three authors. Our main result says that any homogeneous affine manifold admits at least one homogeneous geodesic through each point. As an immediate corollary, we prove the same result for the subclass of all homogeneous pseudo-Riemannian manifolds.     

On the duality principle in pseudo-Riemannian Osserman manifolds

Here we give a natural extension of the duality principle for the curvature tensor of pointwise pseudo-Riemannian Osserman manifolds. We proved that this extended duality principle holds under certain additional assumptions. Also, it is proved that duality principle holds for every four-dimensional Osserman manifold.     

Homogeneous Lorentzian Spaces Whose Null-geodesics are Canonically Homogeneous

It is shown that a homogeneous Lorentzian space for which every null-geodesic is canonically homogeneous, admits a non-vanishing homogeneous Lorentzian structure belonging to the class .     

Homogeneous geodesics in homogeneous Finsler spaces

In this paper, we study homogeneous geodesics in homogeneous Finsler spaces. We first give a simple criterion that characterizes geodesic vectors. We show that the geodesics on a Lie group, relative to a bi-invariant Finsler metric, are the cosets of the one-parameter subgroups. The existence of infinitely many homogeneous geodesics on the compact semi-simple Lie group is established. We introduce the notion of a naturally reductive homogeneous Finsler space. As a special case, we study homogeneous geodesics in homogeneous Randers spaces. Finally, we study some curvature properties of homogeneous geodesics. In particular, we prove that the S-curvature vanishes along the homogeneous geodesics.     

Extrinsic symplectic symmetric spaces

We define the notion of extrinsic symplectic symmetric spaces and exhibit some of their properties. We construct large families of examples and show how they fit in the perspective of a complete classification of these manifolds. We also build a natural ?$?$-quantization on a class of examples.     

On the nonexistence of Einstein metrics on 4-manifolds

By using the gluing formulae of the Seiberg–Witten invariant, we show the nonexistence of Einstein metrics on manifolds obtained from a 4-manifold with a nontrivial Seiberg–Witten invariant by performing sufficiently many connected sums or appropriate surgeries along circles or homologically trivial 2-spheres with closed oriented 4-manifolds with negative-definite intersection form.     

Some Berwald spaces of non-positive flag curvature

In this paper, by using left invariant Riemannian metrics on some three-dimensional Lie groups, we construct some complete non-Riemannian Berwald spaces of non-positive flag curvature and several families of geodesically complete locally Minkowskian spaces of zero constant flag curvature.     

Six-dimensional nearly Kähler manifolds of cohomogeneity one

We consider six-dimensional strict nearly Kähler manifolds acted on by a compact, cohomogeneity one automorphism group G$G$. We classify the compact manifolds of this class up to G$G$-diffeomorphisms. We also prove that the manifold has constant sectional curvature whenever the group G$G$ is simple.     

Conformal gauge fixing in Minkowski space

Conformal gauge fixing on simply connected parts of world sheets in Minkowski space is examined in detail. It is proved that conformal gauge fixing can be imposed, including the usual boundary conditions.     

Energy–momentum tensor on foliations

In this paper, we give a new lower bound for the eigenvalues of the Dirac operator on a compact spin manifold. This estimate is motivated by the fact that in its limiting case a skew-symmetric tensor (see Eq. (1.6)) appears that can be identified geometrically with the O’Neill tensor of a Riemannian flow, carrying a transversal parallel spinor. The Heisenberg group which is a fibration over the torus is an example of this case. Sasakian manifolds are also considered to be particular examples of Riemannian flows. Finally, we characterize the 3-dimensional case by a solution of the Dirac equation.     

Pitch functions of ruled surfaces and B-scrolls in Minkowski 3-space

In this paper, we define pitch function for any non developable ruled surfaces and use this notion to give a new characterization of B-scrolls in Minkowski 3-space.     

Lie-Poisson groups: Remarks and examples

The aim of this Letter is twofold. On the one hand, we discuss two possible definitions of complex structures on Poisson-Lie groups and we give a complete classification of the isomorphism classes of complex Lie-Poisson structures on the group SL(2, ). On the other hand, we give an algebraic characterization of a class of solutions of the Yang-Baxter equations which contains the well-known Drinfeld solutions [1]; in particular, we prove the existence of a nontrivial Lie-Poisson structure on any simply connected real semi-simple Lie Group G. Other low dimensional examples will appear elsewhere.Chercheur qualifié au FNRS.     

Spacelike submanifolds of codimension two in de Sitter space

We investigate the differential geometry of spacelike submanifolds of codimension two in de Sitter space and classify the singularities of lightlike hypersurfaces and lightcone Gauss maps in de Sitter 4-space.     

Existence of connections on superbundles

We show that the existence of a connection on a super vector bundle or on a principal super fibre bundle is equivalent to the vanishing of a cohomological invariant of the superbundle. This invariant is proved to vanish in the case of a De Witt base supermanifold. Finally, some examples are discussed.     

On weakly symmetric Finsler spaces

In this paper, we study weakly symmetric Finsler spaces. We first study an existence theorem of weakly symmetric Finsler spaces. Then we study some geometric properties of these spaces and prove that any such space can be written as a coset space of a Lie group with an invariant Finsler metric. Finally we show that each weakly symmetric Finsler space is of Berwald type.