Minimality of totally geodesic submanifolds in Finsler geometry

Using the symplectic definition of the Holmes-Thompson volume we prove that totally geodesic submanifolds of a Finsler manifold are minimal for this volume. Thanks to well suited technics the minimality of totally geodesic hypersurfaces (see álvarez Paiva and Berck in Adv Math 204(2):647–663, 2006) and 2-dimensional totally geodesic surfaces (see álvarez Paiva and Berck in Adv Math 204(2):647–663, 2006, Ivanov in Algebra i Analiz 13(1)26–38, 2001) had already been proved. However the corresponding statement for the Hausdorff measure is known to be wrong even in the simplest case of totally geodesic 2-dimensional surfaces in a 3-dimensional Finsler manifold (see álvarez Paiva and Berck in Adv Math 204(2):647–663, 2006).     

Stability of certain minimal submanifolds in compact symmetric spaces of rank two

In [T. Kimura, M.S. Tanaka, Totally geodesic submanifold in compact symmetric spaces of rank two, Tokyo J. Math., in press], the authors obtained the global classification of the maximal totally geodesic submanifolds in compact connected irreducible symmetric spaces of rank two. In this paper, we determine their stability as minimal submanifolds in compact symmetric spaces of rank two.     

Polyhedral Finsler spaces with locally unique geodesics

We study Finsler PL spaces, that is simplicial complexes glued out of simplices cut off from some normed spaces. We are interested in the class of Finsler PL spaces featuring local uniqueness of geodesics (for complexes made of Euclidean simplices, this property is equivalent to local CAT(0)). Though non-Euclidean normed spaces never satisfy CAT(0), it turns out that they share many common features. In particular, a globalization theorem holds: in a simply-connected Finsler PL space local uniqueness of geodesics implies the global one. However the situation is more delicate here: some basic convexity properties do not extend to the PL Finsler case.     

Totally geodesic hypersurfaces of four-dimensional generalized symmetric spaces

We prove that a four-dimensional generalized symmetric space does not admit any non-degenerate hypersurfaces with parallel second fundamental form, in particular non-degenerate totally geodesic hypersurfaces, unless it is locally symmetric. However, spaces which are known as generalized symmetric spaces of type C do admit non-degenerate parallel hypersurfaces and we verify that they are indeed symmetric. We also give a complete and explicit classification of all non-degenerate totally geodesic hypersurfaces of spaces of this type.     

Some Finsler spaces with homogeneous geodesics

A geodesic in a homogeneous Finsler space is called a homogeneous geodesic if it is an orbit of a one‐parameter subgroup of G . A homogeneous Finsler space is called Finsler g.o. space if its all geodesics are homogeneous. Recently, the author studied Finsler g.o. spaces and generalized some geometric results on Riemannian g.o. spaces to the Finslerian setting. In the present paper, we investigate homogeneous geodesics in homogeneous spaces, and obtain the sufficient and necessary condition for an space to be a g.o. space. As an application, we get a series of new examples of Finsler g.o. spaces.     

Conformal vector fields on Finsler spaces

Here, it is shown that every vector field on a Finsler space which keeps geodesic circles invariant is conformal. A necessary and sufficient condition for a vector field to keep geodesic circles invariant, known as concircular vector fields, is obtained. This leads to a significant definition of concircular vector fields on a Finsler space. Finally, complete Finsler spaces admitting a special conformal vector field are classified.     

Locally symmetric Finsler spaces in negative curvature

É. Cartan introduced in 1926 the Riemannian locally symmetric spaces, as the spaces whose curvature tensor is parallel. They also owe their name to the fact that, for each point, the geodesic reflexion is a local isometry. The aim of this Note is to announce a strong rigidity result for Finsler spaces. Namely, we show that a negatively curved locally symmetric (in the first sense above) Finsler space is isometric to a Riemann locally symmetric space.     

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.     

Orbits of unbounded energy in quasi-periodic perturbations of geodesic flows

We show that certain mechanical systems, including a geodesic flow in any dimension plus a quasi-periodic perturbation by a potential, have orbits of unbounded energy.The assumptions we make in the case of geodesic flows are:

(a)

The metric and the external perturbation are smooth enough.

(b)

The geodesic flow has a hyperbolic periodic orbit such that its stable and unstable manifolds have a tranverse homoclinic intersection.

(c)

The frequency of the external perturbation is Diophantine.

(d)

The external potential satisfies a generic condition depending on the periodic orbit considered in (b).

The assumptions on the metric are C² open and are known to be dense on many manifolds. The assumptions on the potential fail only in infinite codimension spaces of potentials.The proof is based on geometric considerations of invariant manifolds and their intersections. The main tools include the scattering map of normally hyperbolic invariant manifolds, as well as standard perturbation theories (averaging, KAM and Melnikov techniques).We do not need to assume that the metric is Riemannian and we obtain results for Finsler or Lorentz metrics. Indeed, there is a formulation for Hamiltonian systems satisfying scaling hypotheses. We do not need to make assumptions on the global topology of the manifold nor on its dimension.     

Completion of Semi-uniform Spaces

The category of all Hausdorff complete t-semi-uniform spaces is shown to be epireflective in the category of all Hausdorff t-semi-uniform spaces but the reflection arrows need not be embeddings since there is no nontrivial epireflective subcategory of the category of all Hausdorff t-semi-uniform spaces in which all reflection arrows are embeddings (t-semi-uniform spaces are those semi-uniform spaces inducing a topology). On the other hand for every t-semi-uniform space X there exist a minimal and a maximal completion containing X as a dense subspace. The second one is an almost reflection in complete spaces, i.e., every uniformly continuous mapping on X to a complete semi-uniform space can be extended (as a uniformly continuous map) onto the completion.      

Totally geodesic submanifolds of the complex quadric

In this article, relations between the root space decomposition of a Riemannian symmetric space of compact type and the root space decompositions of its totally geodesic submanifolds (symmetric subspaces) are described. These relations provide an approach to the classification of totally geodesic submanifolds in Riemannian symmetric spaces; this is exemplified by the classification of the totally geodesic submanifolds in the complex quadric Qm:=SO(m+2)/(SO(2)×SO(m)) obtained in the second part of the article. The classification shows that the earlier classification of totally geodesic submanifolds of Qm by Chen and Nagano (see [B.-Y. Chen, T. Nagano, Totally geodesic submanifolds of symmetric spaces, I, Duke Math. J. 44 (1977) 745-755]) is incomplete. More specifically, two types of totally geodesic submanifolds of Qm are missing from [B.-Y. Chen, T. Nagano, Totally geodesic submanifolds of symmetric spaces, I, Duke Math. J. 44 (1977) 745-755]: The first type is constituted by manifolds isometric to CP¹×RP¹; their existence follows from the fact that Q² is (via the Segre embedding) holomorphically isometric to CP¹×CP¹. The second type consists of 2-spheres of radius which are neither complex nor totally real in Qm.     

Path of quasi-means as a geodesic

As a generalization of the Hiai-Petz geometries, we discuss two types of them where the geodesics are the quasi-arithmetic means and the quasi-geometric means respectively. Each derivative of such a geodesic might determine a new relative operator entropy. Also in these cases, the Finsler metric can be induced by each unitarily invariant norm. If the norm is strictly convex, then the geodesic is the shortest. We also give examples of the shortest paths which are not the geodesics when the Finsler metrics are induced by the Ky Fan k-norms.     

Invariant Metrizability and Projective Metrizability on Lie Groups and Homogeneous Spaces

In this paper, we study the invariant metrizability and projective metrizability problems for the special case of the geodesic spray associated to the canonical connection of a Lie group. We prove that such canonical spray is projectively Finsler metrizable if and only if it is Riemann metrizable. This result means that this structure is rigid in the sense that considering left invariant metrics, the potentially much larger class of projective Finsler metrizable canonical sprays, corresponding to Lie groups, coincides with the class of Riemann metrizable canonical sprays. Generalisation of these results for geodesic orbit spaces are given.

     

Differentiable Distance Spaces

The distance function \({\varrho(p, q) ({\rm or} d(p, q))}\) of a distance space (general metric space) is not differentiable in general. We investigate such distance spaces over \({\mathbb{R}^n}\), whose distance functions are differentiable like in case of Finsler spaces. These spaces have several good properties, yet they are not Finsler spaces (which are special distance spaces). They are situated between general metric spaces (distance spaces) and Finsler spaces. We will investigate such curves of differentiable distance spaces, which possess the same properties as geodesics do in Finsler spaces. So these curves can be considered as forerunners of Finsler geodesics. They are in greater plenitude than Finsler geodesics, but they become geodesics in a Finsler space. We show some properties of these curves, as well as some relations between differentiable distance spaces and Finsler spaces. We arrive to these curves and to our results by using distance spheres, and using no variational calculus. We often apply direct geometric considerations.     

Metric projections versus non-positive curvature

In this paper two metric properties on geodesic length spaces are introduced by means of the metric projection, studying their validity on Alexandrov and Busemann NPC spaces. In particular, we prove that both properties characterize the non-positivity of the sectional curvature on Riemannian manifolds. Further results are also established on reversible/non-reversible Finsler–Minkowski spaces.     

Parabolic subgroups of semisimple Lie groups and Einstein solvmanifolds

In this paper, we study the solvmanifolds constructed from any parabolic subalgebras of any semisimple Lie algebras. These solvmanifolds are naturally homogeneous submanifolds of symmetric spaces of noncompact type. We show that the Ricci curvatures of our solvmanifolds coincide with the restrictions of the Ricci curvatures of the ambient symmetric spaces. Consequently, all of our solvmanifolds are Einstein, which provide a large number of new examples of noncompact homogeneous Einstein manifolds. We also show that our solvmanifolds are minimal, but not totally geodesic submanifolds of symmetric spaces.     

Dirac operators and spectral triples for some fractal sets built on curves

We construct spectral triples and, in particular, Dirac operators, for the algebra of continuous functions on certain compact metric spaces. The triples are countable sums of triples where each summand is based on a curve in the space. Several fractals, like a finitely summable infinite tree and the Sierpinski gasket, fit naturally within our framework. In these cases, we show that our spectral triples do describe the geodesic distance and the Minkowski dimension as well as, more generally, the complex fractal dimensions of the space. Furthermore, in the case of the Sierpinski gasket, the associated Dixmier-type trace coincides with the normalized Hausdorff measure of dimension log3/log2.     

The structure of singular spaces of dimension 2

In this paper, we study the structure of locally compact metric spaces of Hausdorff dimension 2. If such a space has non-positive curvautre and a local cone structure, then every simple closed curve bounds a conformal disk. On a surface (a topological manifold of dimension 2), a distance function with non-positive curvature and whose metric topology is equivalent to the surface topology gives a structure of a Riemann surface. The construction of conformal disks in these spaces uses minimal surface theory; in particular, the solution of the Plateau Problem in metric spaces of non-positive curvature. Received: 18 November 1997/ Revised versions: 15 January and 7 June 1999     

Filling minimality of finslerian 2-discs

We prove that every Riemannian metric on the 2-disc such that all its geodesics are minimal is a minimal filling of its boundary (within the class of fillings homeomorphic to the disc). This improves an earlier result of the author by removing the assumption that the boundary is convex. More generally, we prove this result for Finsler metrics with area defined as the two-dimensional Holmes-Thompson volume. This implies a generalization of Pu’s isosystolic inequality to Finsler metrics, both for the Holmes-Thompson and Busemann definitions of the Finsler area.     

Totally geodesic holomorphic subspaces

In [G. Munteanu, Complex Spaces in Finsler, Lagrange and Hamilton Geometries, vol. 141, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, FTPH, 2004.] we underlined the motifs of a remarkable class of complex Finsler subspaces, namely the holomorphic subspaces. With respect to the Chern–Finsler complex connection (see [M. Abate, G. Patrizio, Finsler Metrics—A Global Approach, Lecture Notes in Mathematics, vol. 1591, Springer, Berlin, 1994.]) we studied in [G. Munteanu, The equations of a holomorphic subspace in a complex Finsler space, Publicationes Math. Debrecen, submitted for publication.] the Gauss, Codazzi and Ricci equations of a holomorphic subspace, the aim being to determine the interrelation between the holomorphic sectional curvature of the Chern–Finsler connection and that of its induced tangent connection.In the present paper, by means of the complex Berwald connection, we study totally geodesic holomorphic subspaces. With respect to complex Berwald connection the equations of the holomorphic subspace have simplified expressions. The totally geodesic subspace request is characterized by using the second fundamental form of complex Berwald connection.