The goal of this paper is to clarify connections between Killing fields of constant length on a Rimannian geodesic orbit manifold $(M,g)$ and the structure of its full isometry group. The Lie algebra of the full isometry group of $(M,g)$ is identified with the Lie algebra of Killing fields $\mathfrak{g}$ on $(M,g)$. We prove the following result: If $\mathfrak{a}$ is an abelian ideal of $\mathfrak{g}$, then every Killing field $X\in \mathfrak{a}$ has constant length. On the ground of this assertion we give a new proof of one result of C. Gordon: Every Riemannian geodesic orbit manifold of nonpositive Ricci curvature is a symmetric space.
The existence of at least two homogeneous geodesics in any homogeneous Finsler manifold was proved in a previous paper by the author. The examples of solvable Lie groups with invariant Finsler metric which admit just two homogeneous geodesics were presented in another paper. In the present work, it is shown that a homogeneous Finsler manifold with indefinite Killing form admits at least four homogeneous geodesics. Examples of invariant Randers metrics on Lie groups with definite Killing form admitting just two homogeneous geodesics and examples with indefinite Killing form admitting just four …
Given a globally hyperbolic spacetime endowed with a complete lightlike Killing vector field and a complete Cauchy hypersurface, we characterize the points which can be connected by geodesics. A straightforward consequence is the geodesic connectedness of globally hyperbolic generalized plane waves with a complete Cauchy hypersurface.
We study the geometry and the periodic geodesics of a compact Lorentzian manifold that has a Killing vector field which is timelike somewhere. Using a compactness argument for subgroups of the isometry group, we prove the existence of one timelike non self-intersecting periodic geodesic. If the Killing vector field is never vanishing, then there are at least two distinct periodic geodesics; as a special case, compact stationary manifolds have at least two periodic timelike geodesics. We also discuss some properties of the topology of such manifolds. In particular, we show that a compact manifo…
In this paper, We present the geometry three dimensional Heisenberg group (H_3,g) and its geodesics curves. After, we study the Killing magnetic curves and some geodesic Killing magnetic curves with its explicit formulas for such curves.
A symmetric tensor field on a Riemannian manifold is called Killing field if the symmetric part of its covariant derivative is equal to zero. There is a one to one correspondence between Killing tensor fields and first integrals of the geodesic flow which depend polynomially on the velocity. Therefore Killing tensor fields closely relate to the problem of integrability of geodesic flows. In particular, the following question is still open: does there exist a Riemannian metric on the 2-torus which admits an irreducible Killing tensor field of rank $\geq 3$? We obtain two necessary conditions on…
An affine manifold is said to be geodesically complete if all affine geodesics extend for all time. It is said to be affine Killing complete if the integral curves for any affine Killing vector field extend for all time. We use the solution space of the quasi-Einstein equation to examine these concepts in the setting of homogeneous affine surfaces.
We show that under certain curvature conditions of the ambient space an entire Killing graph of constant mean curvature lying inside a slab must be a totally geodesic slice.
Let $D$ be a set of smooth vector fields on the smooth manifold $M$.It is known that orbits of $D$ are submanifolds of M. Partition $F$ of M into orbits of $D$ is a singular foliation. In this paper we are studying geometry of foliation which is generated by orbits of a family of Killing vector fields.In the case $M=R^3$ it is obtained full geometrical classification of $F$. Throughout this paper the word "smooth" refers to a class $C^\infty$.
We prove that a Riemannian product of type M x R (where R denotes the Euclidean line) admits totally umbilical hypersurfaces if and only if M has locally the structure of a warped product and we give a complete description of the totally umbilical hypersurfaces in this case. Moreover, we give a necessary and sufficient condition under which a Riemannian three-manifold carrying a unit Killing field admits totally geodesic surfaces and we study local and global properties of three-manifolds satisfying this condition.
We show how geodesics, Jacobi vector fields and flag curvature of a Finsler metric behave under Zermelo deformation with respect to a Killing vector field. We also show that Zermelo deformation with respect to a Killing vector field of a locally symmetric Finsler metric is also locally symmetric.
In this note, we introduce a new type of warped products called as sequential warped products to cover a wider variety of exact solutions to Einstein's equation. First, we study the geometry of sequential warped products and obtain covariant derivatives, curvature tensor, Ricci curvature and scalar curvature formulas. Then some important consequences of these formulas are also stated. We provide characterizations of geodesics and two different types of conformal vector fields, namely, Killing vector fields and concircular vector fields on sequential warped product manifolds. Finally, we consid…
We call a connected Lie group endowed with a left-invariant Lorentzian flat metric Lorentzian flat Lie group. In this Note, we determine all Lorentzian flat Lie groups admitting a timelike left-invariant Killing vector field. We show that these Lie groups are 2-solvable and unimodular and hence geodesically complete. Moreover, we show that a Lorentzian flat Lie group $(\mathrm{G},μ)$ admits a timelike left-invariant Killing vector field if and only if $\mathrm{G}$ admits a left-invariant Riemannian metric which has the same Levi-Civita connection of $μ$. Finally, we give an useful characteriza…
The family $\mathcal{N}$ of $n$-variate normal distributions is parameterized by the cone of positive definite symmetric $n\times n$-matrices and the $n$-dimensional real vector space. Equipped with the Fisher information metric, $\mathcal{N}$ becomes a Riemannian manifold. As such, it is diffeomorphic, but not isometric, to the Riemannian symmetric space $Pos_1(n+1,\mathbb{R})$ of unimodular positive definite symmetric $(n+1)\times(n+1)$-matrices. As the computation of distances in the Fisher metric for $n>1$ presents some difficulties, Lovrič et al.~(2000) proposed to use the Killing metric …
In the first part of this paper, we give a global description of simply connected maximal Lorentzian surfaces whose group of isometries is of dimension 1 (i.e. with a complete Killing field), in terms of a 1-dimensional generally non-Hausdorff manifold (the space of Killing orbits) and a smooth function defined there. In the second part, we study the completeness of such surfaces and prove in particular that under the hypothesis of bounded curvature, completeness is equivalent to null completeness. We also give completeness criterions involving the topological structure of the space of Killing…
This paper provides a characterization of homogeneous curves on a geometric flag manifold which are geodesic with respect to any invariant metric. We call such curves homogeneous equigeodesics. We also characterize homogeneous equigeodesics whose associated Killing field is closed, hence, the corresponding geodesics is closed.
A rank $m$ symmetric tensor field on a Riemannian manifold is called a Killing field if the symmetric part of its covariant derivative is equal to zero. Such a field determines the first integral of the geodesic flow which is a degree $m$ homogeneous polynomial in velocities. There exist global isothermal coordinates on a two-dimensional Riemannian torus such that the metric is of the form $ds^2=λ(z)|dz|^2$ in the coordinates. The torus admits a third rank Killing tensor field if and only if the function $λ$ satisfies the equation $\Re\big(\frac{\partial}{\partial z}\big(λ(cΔ^{-1}λ_{zz}+a)\big…
We prove that a normal homogeneous space with the property that every Jacobi field along a geodesic vanishing at two points is the restriction of a Killing field along that geodesic is a globally symmetric space.
A geodesic orbit manifold is a complete Riemannian manifold all of whose geodesics are orbits of one-parameter groups of isometries. We give both a geometric and an algebraic characterization of geodesic orbit manifolds that are diffeomorphic to $\mathbf{R}^n$. Along the way, we establish various structural properties of more general geodesic orbit manifolds.
In this paper we investigate geodesic completeness of left-invariant Lorentzian metrics on a simple Lie group $G$ when there exists a left-invariant Killing vector field $Z$ on $G$. Among other results, it is proved that if $Z$ is timelike, or $G$ is strongly causal and $Z$ is lightlike, then the metric is complete. We then consider the special complex Lie group $SL_2(\mathbb{C})$ in more details and show that the existence of a lightlike vector field $Z$ on it, implies geodesic completeness. We also consider the existence of a spacelike vector field $Z$ on $SL_2(\mathbb{C})$ and provide an eq…
The paper is devoted to the study of geodesic orbit Riemannian spaces that could be characterize by the property that any geodesic is an orbit of a 1-parameter group of isometries. In particular, we discuss some important totally geodesic submanifolds that inherit the property to be geodesic orbit. For a given geodesic orbit Riemannian space, we describe the structure of the nilradical and the radical of the Lie algebra of the isometry group. In the final part, we discuss some new tools to study geodesic orbit Riemannian spaces, related to compact Lie group representations with non-trivial pri…
The paper is devoted to the study of geodesic orbit Riemannian spaces that could be characterize by the property that any geodesic is an orbit of a 1-parameter group of isometries. The main result is the classification of compact simply connected geodesic orbit Riemannian spaces $G/H$ with two irreducible submodules in the isotropy representation.
We prove some rigidity results on geodesic orbit Finsler spaces with non-positive curvature. In particular, we show that a geodesic Finsler space with strictly negative flag curvature must be a non-compact Riemannian symmetric space of rank one.
Killing tensor fields have been thought of as describing hidden symmetry of space(-time) since they are in one-to-one correspondence with polynomial first integrals of geodesic equations. Many problems in classical mechanics can be formulated as geodesic problems in curved spaces and spacetimes, and thus solving the defining equation for Killing tensor fields (the Killing equation) is a powerful way to integrate the equations of motion. In this paper we attempt to formulate the integrability conditions of the Killing equation, which serve to put an upper bound on the number of linearly indepen…
Let $V^n$ be an open manifold of non-negative sectional curvature with a soul $Σ$ of co-dimension two. The universal cover $\tilde N$ of the unit normal bundle $N$ of the soul in such a manifold is isometric to the direct product $M^{n-2}\times R$. In the study of the metric structure of $V^n$ an important role plays the vector field $X$ which belongs to the projection of the vertical planes distribution of the Riemannian submersion $π:V\toΣ$ on the factor $M$ in this metric splitting $\tilde N=M\times R$. The case $n=4$ was considered in [GT] where the authors prove that $X$ is a Killing vect…
Geodesic orbit spaces are those Riemannian homogeneous spaces (G/H,g) whose geodesics are orbits of one-parameter subgroups of G. We classify the simply connected geodesic orbit spaces where G is a compact Lie group of rank two. We prove that the only such spaces for which the metric g is not induced from a bi-invariant metric on G are certain spheres and projective spaces, endowed with metrics induced from Hopf fibrations.
Riemannian geodesic orbit spaces (G/H,g) are natural generalizations of symmetric spaces, defined by the property that their geodesics are orbits of one-parameter subgroups of G. We study the geodesic orbit spaces of the form (G/S,g), where G is a compact, connected, semisimple Lie group and S is abelian. We give a simple geometric characterization of those spaces, namely that they are naturally reductive. In turn, this yields the classification of the invariant geodesic orbit (and also the naturally reductive) metrics on any space of the form G/S. Our approach involves simplifying the intrica…
In this paper, we focus on homogeneous spaces which are constructed from two strongly isotropy irreducible spaces, and prove that any geodesic orbit metric on these spaces is naturally reductive.
In this paper nontrivial Killing vector fields of constant length and corresponding flows on smooth complete Riemannian manifolds are investigated. It is proved that such a flow on symmetric space is free or induced by a free isometric action of the circle $S^1$. The properties of the set of all points with finite (infinite) period for general isometric flow on Riemannian manifolds are described. It is shown that this flow is generated by an effective almost free isometric action of the group $S^1$ if there are no points of infinite or zero period. In the last case the set of periods is at mos…
Geodesic orbit spaces (or g.o. spaces) are defined as those homogeneous Riemannian spaces $(M=G/H,g)$ whose geodesics are orbits of one-parameter subgroups of $G$. The corresponding metric $g$ is called a geodesic orbit metric. We study the geodesic orbit spaces of the form $(\Sp(n)/\Sp(n_1)\times \cdots \times \Sp(n_s), g)$, with $0<n_1+\cdots +n_s\leq n$. Such spaces include spheres, quaternionic Stiefel manifolds, Grassmann manifolds and quaternionic flag manifolds. The present work is a contribution to the study of g.o. spaces $(G/H,g)$ with $H$ semisimple.
In this paper, we generalize the classification of geodesic orbit spheres from Riemannian geometry to Finsler geometry. Then we further prove if a geodesic orbit Finsler sphere has constant flag curvature, it must be Randers. It provides an alternative proof for the classification of invariant Finsler metrics with $K\equiv1$ on homogeneous spheres other than $Sp(n)/Sp(n-1)$.
We study Riemannian nilmanifolds associated with graphs. We prove that such a nilmanifold is geodesic orbit if and only if it is naturally reductive if and only if its defining graph is the disjoint union of complete graphs and the left-invariant metric is generated by a certain naturally defined inner product.
A Finsler space $(M,F)$ is called a geodesic orbit space if any geodesic of constant speed is the orbit of a one-parameter subgroup of isometries of $(M, F)$. In this paper, we study Finsler metrics on Euclidean spaces which are geodesic orbit metrics. We will show that, in this case $(M, F)$ is a fiber bundle over a symmetric Finsler space $M_1$ of non-compact type such that each fiber $M_2$ is a totally geodesic nilmanifold with a step-size at most 2, and the projection $π:M\rightarrow M_1$ is a Finslerian submersion. Furthermore, when $M_1$ has no Hermitian symmetric factors, the fiber bund…
In this paper we prove that the compact Lie group $G_2$ admits a left-invariant Einstein metric that is not geodesic orbit. In order to prove the required assertion, we develop some special tools for geodesic orbit Riemannian manifolds. It should be noted that a suitable metric is discovered in a recent paper by I. Chrysikos and Y. Sakane, where the authors proved also that this metric is not naturally reductive.
We describe the invariant metrics on real flag manifolds and classify those with the following property: every geodesic is the orbit of a one-parameter subgroup. Such a metric is called g.o. (geodesic orbit). In contrast to the complex case, on real flag manifolds the isotropy representation can have equivalent submodules, which makes invariant metrics depend on more parameters and allows us to find more cases in which non-trivial g.o. metrics exist.
In this paper we study geodesics on adjoint orbits of $SL(n,\mathbb{R})$ equipped with $SO(n)$-invariant metrics (maximal compact subgroup). Our main technique is translate this problem into a geometric problem in the tangent bundle of certain $SO(n)$-flag manifolds and describe the geodesics equations with respect to the Sasaki metric on tangent bundle. We also use tools of Lie Theory in order to obtain some explicit description of families of geodesics. We deal with the case of $SL(2,\mathbb{R})$ in full details.
Given a Lorentzian manifold $(M,g)$, a geodesic $γ$ in $M$ and a timelike Jacobi field $\mathcal Y$ along $γ$, we introduce a special class of instants along $γ$ that we call $\mathcal Y$-pseudo conjugate (or focal relatively to some initial orthogonal submanifold). We prove that the $\mathcal Y$-pseudo conjugate instants form a finite set, and their number equals the Morse index of (a suitable restriction of) the index form. This gives a Riemannian-like Morse index theorem. As special cases of the theory, we will consider geodesics in stationary and static Lorentzian manifolds, where the Jaco…
Moitvated in part by [3], in this note we obtain a rigidity result for globally hyperbolic vacuum spacetimes in arbitrary dimension that admit a timelike conformal Killing vector field. Specifically, we show that if M is a Ricci flat, timelike geodesically complete spacetime with compact Cauchy surfaces that admits a timelike conformal Killing field X, then M must split as a metric product, and X must be Killing. This gives a partial proof of the Bartnik splitting conjecture in the vacuum setting.
We review properties of so-called special conformal Killing tensors on a Riemannian manifold $(Q,g)$ and the way they give rise to a Poisson-Nijenhuis structure on the tangent bundle $TQ$. We then address the question of generalizing this concept to a Finsler space, where the metric tensor field comes from a regular Lagrangian function $E$, homogeneous of degree two in the fibre coordinates on $TQ$. It is shown that when a symmetric type (1,1) tensor field $K$ along the tangent bundle projection $τ: TQ\to Q$ satisfies a differential condition which is similar to the defining relation of specia…
Stationary and axially symmetric space-times play an important role in astrophysics, particularly in the theory of neutron stars and black holes. The static vacuum sub-class of these space-times is known as Weyl's class, and contains the Schwarzschild space-time as its most prominent example. This paper is going to study the space of Killing tensor fields of valence 3 for space-times of Weyl's class. Killing tensor fields play a crucial role in physics since they are in correspondence to invariants of the geodesic motion (i.e. constants of the motion). It will be proven that in static and axia…
Given an d-dimensional manifold with two commuting Killing vectors, together with an d - 1 dimensional submanifold in which one of the Killing vectors lies, then the lapse and shift of the second Killing vector, relative to this slice, remain constant along the orbits of the `surface' Killing vector. Alternatively, the six dot products that can be formed from the three vectors, the two Killing vectors and the normal to the submanifold, are all constants along the `surface' Killing vector.
In this paper, we investigate left-invariant geodesic orbit metrics on connected simple Lie groups, where the metrics are formed by the structures of generalized flag manifolds. We prove that all these left-invariant geodesic orbit metrics on simple Lie groups are naturally reductive.
We study cohomogeneity one Riemannian manifolds and we establish some simple criterium to test when a singular orbit is totally geodesic. As an application, we classify compact, positively curved Riemannian manifolds which are acted on isometrically by a non semisimple Lie group with an hypersurface orbit.
