We investigate the rudiments of Riemannian geometry on orbit spaces $M/G$ for isometric proper actions of Lie groups on Riemannian manifolds. Minimal geodesic arcs are length minimising curves in the metric space $M/G$ and they can hit strata which are more singular only at the end points. This is phrased as convexity result. The geodesic spray, viewed as a (strata-preserving) vector field on $TM/G$, leads to the notion of geodesics in $M/G$ which are projections under $M\to M/G$ of geodesics which are normal to the orbits. It also leads to `ballistic curves' which are projections of the other geodesics. In examples (Hermitian and symmetric matrices, and more generally polar representations) we compute their equations by singular symplectic reductions and obtain generalizations of Calogero-Moser systems with spin.
Many classical facts in Riemannian geometry have their pseudo-Riemannian analogs. For instance, the spaces of space-like and time-like geodesics on a pseudo-Riemannian manifold have natural symplectic structures (just like in the Riemannian case), while the space of light-like geodesics has a natural contact structure. We discuss the geometry of these structures in detail, as well as introduce and study pseudo-Euclidean billiards. In particular, we prove pseudo-Euclidean analogs of the Jacobi-Chasles theorems and show the integrability of the billiard in the ellipsoid and the geodesic flow on …
In the present paper we show that the geodesic flows of a sub-Riemannian metric and that of a Riemannian extension commute if and only if the extended metric is parallel with respect to a certain connection. This helps us to describe the geodesic flow of sub-Riemannian metrics on totally geodesic Riemannian submersions. As a consequence we can characterize sub-Riemannian geodesics as the horizontal lifts of projections of Riemannian geodesics.
There are many equivalent definitions of Riemannian geodesics. They are naturally generalised to sub-Riemannian manifold, but become non-equivalent. We give a review of different definitions of geodesics of a sub-Riemannian manifold and interrelation between them. We recall three variational definitions of geodesics as (locally) shortest curves (Euler-Lagrange, Pontyagin and Hamilton) and three definitions of geodesics as straightest curves (d'Alembert , Levi-Civita-Schouten and Cartan-Tanaka ), used in nonholonomic mechanics and discuss their interrelations. We consider a big class of sub-Rie…
This note proves that any locally extremal non-self-conjugate geodesic loop in a Riemannian manifold is a closed geodesic. As a consequence, any complete and non-contractible Riemannian manifold with diverging injectivity radii along diverging sequences and without points conjugate to themselves, possesses a minimizing closed geodesic.
The present paper is devoted to the problem of (local) geodesic equivalence of Riemannian metrics and sub-Riemannian metrics on generic corank 1 distributions. Using Pontryagin Maximum Principle, we treat Riemannian and sub-Riemannian cases in an unified way and obtain some algebraic necessary conditions for the geodesic equivalence of (sub-)Riemannian metrics. In this way first we obtain a new elementary proof of classical Levi-Civita's Theorem about the classification of all Riemannian geodesically equivalent metrics in a neighborhood of so-called regular (stable) point w.r.t. these metrics.…
Let $(M_1,g_1)$ and $(M_2,g_2)$ be two $C^\infty$--differentiable connected, complete Riemannian manifolds, $k:M_1\to\mathbb R$ a $C^\infty$--differentiable function, having $0<k_0<k(x)\leq K_0$, for any $x\in M_1$ and $g:=g_1-kg_2$ the semi Riemannian metric on the product manifold $M:=M_1\times M_2$. We associate to $g$ a suitable family of Riemannian metrics $G_r+g_2$, with $r>-K_0^{-1}$, on $M$ and we call Riemannian geodesics of $g$ the geodesics of $g$ which are geodesics of a metric of the previous family, via a suitable reparametrization. Among the properties of these geodesics, we quo…
In this paper we study geodesics of left-invariant sub-Riemannian metrics on SO(3) and almost-Riemannian metrics on $S^2$. These structures are connected with each other, and it is possible to use information about one of them to obtain results about another one. We give an explicit parameterization of sub-Riemannian geodesics on SO(3) and use it to get a parameterization of almost-Riemannian geodesics on $S^2$. We use symmetries of the exponential map to obtain some necessary optimality conditions. We present some upper bounds on the cut time in both cases and describe periodic geodesics on S…
Let $M$ be a surface with a Riemannian metric and $UM$ the unit tangent bundle over $M$ with the canonical contact sub-Riemannian structure $D$ on $UM$. In this paper, the complete local classification of singularities, under the Legendre fibration $UM$ over $M$, is given for sub-Riemannian geodesics of $(UM, D)$. Legendre singularities of sub-Riemannian geodesics are classified completely also for another Legendre fibration from $UM$ to the space of Riemannian geodesics on $M$. The duality on Legendre singularities is observed related to the pendulum motion.
We introduce the notion of spectral flow along a periodic semi-Riemannian geodesic, as a suitable substitute of the Morse index in the Riemannian case. We study the growth of the spectral flow along a closed geodesic under iteration, determining its asymptotic behavior.
In the present paper we study pseudo-Riemannian submanifolds which have 3-planar geodesic normal sections.We consider W-curves (helices) on pseudo-Riemannian submanifolds. Finally, we give neccessary and sufficient condition for a normal section to be a W-curve on pseudo-Riemannian submanifolds.
We consider a closed three-dimensional contact sub-Riemannian manifold. The objective of this note is to provide a precise description of the sub-Riemannian geodesics with large initial momenta: we prove that they "spiral around the Reeb orbits", not only in the phase space but also in the configuration space. Our analysis is based on a normal form along any Reeb orbit due to Melrose.
We give a full description of totally geodesic submanifolds in the tangent bundle of a Riemannian 2-manifold of constant curvature and present a new class of a cylinder-type totally geodesic submanifolds in the general case.
We classify pseudo-Riemannian submersions with connected totally geodesic fibres from a real pseudo-hyperbolic space onto a pseudo-Riemannian manifold. Also, we obtain the classification of the pseudo-Riemannian submersions with (para-)complex connected totally geodesic fibres from a (para-)complex pseudo-hyperbolic space onto a pseudo-Riemannian manifold.
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.
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.
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 goal of this paper is to study periodic geodesics for sub-Riemannian metrics on a contact 3D-manifold.We develop two rather independent subjects:1) The existence of closed geodesics spiraling around periodic Reeb orbits for a generic metric.2) The precise study of the periodic geodesics for a right invariant metric on a quotient of SL2(R)
We present an example of a complete Riemannian plane with precisely two injective geodesics - up to reparameterization. The example arises as a perturbation of a surface of revolution with contracting end. The last section is devoted to open problems.
The Virasoro-Bott group endowed with the right-invariant $L^2$-metric (which is a weak Riemannian metric) has the KdV-equation as geodesic equation. We prove that this metric space has vanishing geodesic distance.
We investigate under which assumptions an orientable pseudo-Riemannian geodesic foliations by circles is generated by an $S^1$-action. We construct examples showing that, contrary to the Riemannian case, it is not always true. However, we prove that such an action always exists when the foliation does not contain lightlike leaves, i.e. a pseudo-Riemannian Wadsley's Theorem. As an application, we show that every Lorentzian surface all of whose spacelike/timelike geodesics are closed, is finitely covered by $S^1\times \R$. It follows that every Lorentzian surface contains a non-closed geodesic.
In this paper, we define and study sub-Riemannian structures on Banach manifolds. We obtain extensions of the Chow-Rashevski theorem for exact controllability, and give conditions for the existence of a Hamiltonian geodesic flow despite the lack of a Pontryagin Maximum Principle in the infinite dimensional setting.
In this article, we have introduced the concept of \textit{geodesic $(α,E)$-invex set} and by using this concept the notion of \textit{geodesic $(α,E)$-preinvex functions} and \textit{geodesic $(α,E)$-invex functions} are developed on a Riemannian manifold. Moreover, several properties and results are deduced within aforesaid functions. An example is also constructed to illustrate the definition of geodesic $(α,E)$-invex set. We have also established an important relation between geodesic $(α,E)$-preinvex function and geodesic $(α,E)$-invex function in a complete Riemannian manifold.
We give a definition of weak geodesics on prox-regular subsets of Riemannian manifolds as continuous curves with some weak regularities. Then obtaining a suitable Lipschitz constant of the projection map, we characterize weak geodesics on a prox-regular set with assigned end points as viscosity critical points of the energy functional.
In this note we prove that the Heisenberg group with a left-invariant pseudo-Riemannian metric admits a completely integrable totally geodesic distribution of codimension 1. This is on the contrary to the Riemannian case, as it was proved by T. Hangan.
In the first part of this expository article, the most important constructions and classification results concerning totally geodesic submanifolds in Riemannian symmetric spaces are summarized. In the second part, I describe the results of my classification of the totally geodesic submanifolds in the Riemannian symmetric spaces of rank 2.
We give a full geometrical description of local totally geodesic unit vector field on Riemannian 2-manifold, considering the field as a local imbedding of the manifold into its unit tangent bundle with the Sasaki metric.
We provide an easy approach to the geodesic distance on the general linear group GL(n) for left-invariant Riemannian metrics which are also right-O(n)-invariant. The parametrization of geodesic curves and the global existence of length minimizing geodesics are deduced using simple methods based on the calculus of variations and classical analysis only. The geodesic distance is discussed for some special cases and applications towards the theory of nonlinear elasticity are indicated.
We present a geometric interpretation of integrability of geodesic flow by quadratic integrals in terms of the web theory and construct integrable billiards on surfaces admitting such integrals.
We prove the integrability of geodesic flows on the Riemannian g.o. spaces of compact Lie groups, as well as on a related class of Riemannian homogeneous spaces having an additional principal bundle structure.
In this survey article we gather classical as well as recent results on minimal geodesics of Riemannian or Finsler metrics, giving special attention to the two-dimensional case. Moreover, we present open problems together with some first ideas as to the solutions.
We construct Riemannian manifolds with completely integrable geodesic flows, in particular various nonhomogeneous examples. The methods employed are a modification of Thimm's method, Riemannian submersions and connected sums.
The authors found geodesics, shortest arcs, cut loci, and conjugate sets for left-invariant sub-Riemannian matric on the Lie group $SL(2)$, which is right-invariant relative to the Lie subgroup $SO(2)\subset SL(2)$ (in other words, for invariant sub-Riemannian metric on weakly symmetric space $(SL(2)\times SO(2))/SO(2)$).
We prove the existence of immersed closed curves of constant geodesic curvature in an arbitrary Riemannian 2-sphere for almost every prescribed curvature. To achieve this, we develop a min-max scheme for a weighted length functional.
We give a natural definition of geodesics on a Riemannian supermanifold and extend the usual geodesic flow defined on the cotangent bundle of the body of the supermanifold, associated to the induced Riemannian structure on the body, to a geodesic "superflow" on the cotangent bundle of the supermanifold. Integral curves of this flow turn out to be in natural bijection with geodesics on the Riemannian supermanifold. We also construct the corresponding exponential map and generalize the well-known faithful linearization of isometries to Riemannian supermanifolds.
The usual notion of set-convexity, valid in the classical Euclidean context, metamorphoses into several distinct convexity types in the more general Riemannian setting. By studying this phenomenon in reverse, we characterize complete manifolds for which certain convexity types are assumed a priori to coincide.
The unit sphere $\mathbb S^3$ can be identified with the unitary group SU(2). Under this identification the unit sphere can be considered as a non-commutative Lie group. The commutation relations for the vector fields of the corresponding Lie algebra define a 2-step sub-Riemannian manifold. We study sub-Riemannian geodesics on this sub-Riemannian manifold making use of the Hamiltonian formalism and solving the corresponding Hamiltonian system.
In this paper we prove that geodesic mappings of (pseudo-) Riemannian manifolds preserve the class of differentiability \hbox{$(C^r, r\geq1)$}. Also, if the Einstein space $V_n$ admits a non trivial geodesic mapping onto a \hbox{(pseudo-)} Riemannian manifold $\bar V_n\in C^1$, then $\bar V_n$ is an Einstein space. If a four-dimensional Einstein space with non constant curvature globally admits a geodesic mapping onto a (pseudo-) Riemannian manifold $\bar V_4\in C^1$, then the mapping is affine and, moreover, if the scalar curvature is non vanishing, then the mapping is homothetic, i.e. $\bar …
Considering Riemannian submersions, we find necessary and sufficient conditions for when sub-Riemannian normal geodesics project to curves of constant first geodesic curvature or constant first and vanishing second geodesic curvatures. We describe a canonical extension of the sub-Riemannian metric and study geometric properties of the obtained Riemannian manifold. This work contains several examples illustrating the results.
Fix a smooth closed manifold $M$. Let $R_M$ denote the space of all pairs $(g,L)$ such that $g$ is a $C^3$ Riemannian metric on $M$ and the real number $L$ is not the length of any closed $g$-geodesics. A locally constant geodesic count function $π_M:R_M\rightarrow Z$ is constructed. For this purpose, the weight of compact open subsets of the space of closed $g$-geodesics is defined and investigated for an arbitrary Riemannian metric $g$.
We discuss some geometric aspects of PSL(2,C), SL(2,C), and the space G of the geodesics of H^3 equipped with some suitable structures of Riemannian holomorphic manifolds of constant sectional curvature. We also observe that G is a symmetric space for the group PSL(2,C) and use it to deduce some correlations between their holomorphic Riemannian metrics.
We consider a pseudo-Riemannian metric that changes signature along a smooth curve on a surface, called the discriminant curve. The discriminant curve separates the surface locally into a Riemannian and a Lorentzian domain. We study the local behaviour and properties of geodesics at a point on the discriminant where the isotropic direction is tangent to the discriminant curve.
The paper is a study of geodesic in two-dimensional pseudo-Riemannian metrics. Firstly, the local properties of geodesics in a neighborhood of generic parabolic points are investigated. The equation of the geodesic flow has singularities at such points that leads to a curious phenomenon: geodesics cannot pass through such a point in arbitrary tangential directions, but only in certain directions said to be admissible (the number of admissible directions is generically 1 or 3). Secondly, we study the global properties of geodesics in pseudo-Riemannian metrics possessing differentiable groups of…
We explicitly describe the length minimizing geodesics for a sub-Riemannian structure of the elliptic type defined on $SL(2, \mathbb{R})$. Our method uses a symmetry reduction which translates the problem into a Riemannian problem on a two dimensional quotient space, on which projections of geodesics can be easily visualized. As a byproduct, we obtain an alternative derivation of the characterization of the cut-locus obtained in \cite{BoscaRossi}. We use classification results for three dimensional right invariant sub-Riemannian structures on Lie groups \cite{AGBD}, \cite{Biggs}, \cite{HB2} to…
We define the notion of a smooth pseudo-Riemannian algebraic variety $(X,g)$ over a field $k$ of characteristic $0$, which is an algebraic analogue of the notion of Riemannian manifold and we study, from a model-theoretic perspective, the algebraic differential equation describing the geodesics on $(X,g)$. When $k$ is the field of real numbers, we prove that if the real points of $X$ are Zariski-dense in $X$ and if the real analytification of $(X,g)$ is a compact Riemannian manifold with negative curvature, then the algebraic differential equation describing the geodesics on $(X,g)$ is absolut…
We studied rules of transformations of Christoffel symbols under third type almost geodesic mappings in this paper. From this research, we obtained some new invariants of these mappings. These invariants are analogies of Thomas projective parameter and Weyl projective tensor.
By studying completely integrable torus actions on contact manifolds we prove a conjecture of Toth and Zelditch that toric integrable geodesic flows on tori must have flat metrics.
A conjecture of Burns and Knieper asks whether a 2-plane with a metric without conjugate points, and with a geodesic foliation whose lines are at bounded Hausdorff distance, is necessarily flat. We prove this conjecture in two cases: under the hypothesis that the plane admits total curvature, and under the hypothesis of visibility at some point. Along the way, we show that all geodesic line foliations on a Riemannian 2-plane must be homeomorphic to the standard one.
Metrics on Lie groupoids and differentiable stacks have been introduced recently, extending the Riemannian geometry of manifolds and orbifolds to more general singular spaces. Here we continue that theory, studying stacky curves on Riemannian stacks, measuring their length using stacky metrics, and introducing stacky geodesics. Our main results show that the length of stacky curves measure distances on the orbit space, characterize stacky geodesics as locally minimizing curves, and establish a stacky version of Hopf-Rinow Theorem. We include a concise overview that bypasses nonessential techni…
In this paper we survey on some recent results on Riemannian orbifolds and singular Riemannian foliations and combine them to conclude the existence of closed geodesics in the leaf space of some classes of singular Riemannian foliations (s.r.f.), namely s.r.f. that admit sections or have no horizontal conjugate points. We also investigate the shortening process with respect to Riemannian foliations.
We study the interplay between geodesics on two non-holono\-mic systems that are related by the action of a Lie group on them. After some geometric preliminaries, we use the Hamiltonian formalism to write the parametric form of geodesics. We present several geometric examples, including a non-holonomic structure on the Gromoll-Meyer exotic sphere and twistor space.
