On any manifold, any non-degenerate symmetric 2-form (metric) and any skew-symmetric (differential) form W can be reduced to a canonical form at any point, but not in any neighborhood: the respective obstructions being the Riemannian tensor and dW. The obstructions to flatness (to reducibility to a canonical form) are well-known for any G-structure, not only for Riemannian or symplectic structures.
For the manifold with a nonholonomic structure (nonintegrable distribution), the general notions of flatness and obstructions to it, though of huge interest (e.g., in supergravity) were not known until recently, though particular cases were known for more than a century (e.g., any contact structure is ``flat'': it can always be reduced, locally, to a canonical form).
We give a general definition of the NONHOLONOMIC analogs of the Riemann and Weyl tensors. With the help of Premet's theorems and a package SuperLie we calculate these tensors for the particular case of flag varieties associated with each maximal (and several other) parabolic subalgebra of each simple Lie algebra. We also compute obstructions to flatness of the G(2)-structure and its nonholonomic super counterpart.
In the present article the geometry of semi-Riemannian manifolds with nonholonomic constraints is studied. These manifolds can be considered as analogues to the sub-Riemannian manifolds, where the positively definite metric is substituted by a nondegenerate metric. To study properties of the exponential map the Christoffel symbols and other differential operators were introduced. We study solutions of the Hamiltonian system and their projections into the underlying manifold. The explicit formulae were found for a specific example of a semi-Riemannian manifold with nonholonomic constraints.
In this paper, it is elaborated the theory the Ricci flows for manifolds enabled with nonintegrable (nonholonomic) distributions defining nonlinear connection structures. Such manifolds provide a unified geometric arena for nonholonomic Riemannian spaces, Lagrange mechanics, Finsler geometry, and various models of gravity (the Einstein theory and string, or gauge, generalizations). We follow the method of nonholonomic frames with associated nonlinear connection structure and define certain classes of nonholonomic constraints on Riemann manifolds for which various types of generalized Finsler g…
We survey the geometry of Lagrange and Finsler spaces and discuss the issues related to the definition of curvature of nonholonomic manifolds enabled with nonlinear connection structure. It is proved that any commutative Riemannian geometry (in general, any Riemann--Cartan space) defined by a generic off--diagonal metric structure (with an additional affine connection possessing nontrivial torsion) is equivalent to a generalized Lagrange, or Finsler, geometry modeled on nonholonomic manifolds. This results in the problem of constructing noncommutative geometries with local anisotropy, in parti…
The notions of the interior and truncated connections of a nonholonomic manifold are introduced. A class of extended truncated connections is distinguished. For the case of a contact space with a Finsler metric, it is shown that there exists a unique extended truncated connection that satisfies additional properties. The curvature tensor of the obtained connection in the case of a sub-Riemannian space coincides with the Wagner curvature tensor that was constructed by Wagner for the case of an arbitrary nonholonomic manifold of codimension one endowed with an interior affine connection.
The geometric constructions are elaborated on (semi) Riemannian manifolds and vector bundles provided with nonintegrable distributions defining nonlinear connection structures induced canonically by metric tensors. Such spaces are called nonholonomic manifolds and described by two equivalent linear connections also induced in unique forms by a metric tensor (the Levi Civita and the canonical distinguished connection, d-connection). The lifts of geometric objects on tangent bundles are performed for certain classes of d-connections and frame transforms when the Riemann tensor is parametrized by…
A new framework to perturbative quantum gravity is proposed following the geometry of nonholonomic distributions on (pseudo) Riemannian manifolds. There are considered such distributions and adapted connections, also completely defined by a metric structure, when gravitational models with infinite many couplings reduce to two--loop renormalizable effective actions. We use a key result from our partner work arXiv:0902.0911 that the classical Einstein gravity theory can be reformulated equivalently as a nonholonomic gauge model in the bundle of affine/de Sitter frames on pseudo-Riemannian spacet…
This paper deals with conservation laws for mechanical systems with nonholonomic constraints. It uses a Lagrangian formulation of nonholonomic systems and a Cartan form approach. We present what we believe to be the most general relations between symmetries and first integrals. We discuss the so-called nonholonomic Noether theorem in terms of our formalism, and we give applications to Riemannian submanifolds, to Lagrangians of mechanical type, and to the determination of quadratic first integrals.
We elaborate an unified geometric approach to classical mechanics, Riemann-Finsler spaces and gravity theories on Lie algebroids provided with nonlinear connection (N-connection) structure. There are investigated the conditions when the fundamental geometric objects like the anchor, metric and linear connection, almost sympletic and related almost complex structures may be canonically defined by a N-connection induced from a regular Lagrangian (or Hamiltonian), in mechanical models, or by generic off-diagonal metric terms and nonholonomic frames, in gravity theories. Such geometric constructio…
We formulate a statistical analogy of regular Lagrange mechanics and Finsler geometry derived from Grisha Perelman's functionals generalized for nonholonomic Ricci flows. There are elaborated explicit constructions when nonholonomically constrained flows of Riemann metrics result in Finsler like configurations, and inversely, and geometric mechanics is modelled on Riemann spaces with preferred nonholonomic frame structure.
The aim of this paper is to show that any stable complete Riemannian flag on a compact and connected manifold is conjugated to a flag of homogenus foliations (see Definitions). Also, we give a characterization of Riemannian flags that homogenus. This result is a step toward the classification of Riemannian flags.
In 1910 E. Cartan constructed a canonical frame and found the most symmetric case for maximally nonholonomic rank 2 distributions in $\mathbb R^5$. We solve the analogous problem for germs of generic rank 2 distributions in ${\mathbb R}^n$ for n>5. We use a completely different approach based on the symplectification of the problem. The main idea is to consider a special odd-dimensional submanifold $W_D$ of the cotangent bundle associated with any rank 2 distribution D. It is naturally foliated by characteristic curves, which are also called the abnormal extremals of the distribution D. The dy…
Flag manifolds are in general not symmetric spaces. But they are provided with a structure of $\mathbb{Z}_2^k$-symmetric space. We describe the Riemannian metrics adapted to this structure and some properties of reducibility. We detail for the flag manifold $SO(5)/SO(2)\times SO(2) \times SO(1)$ what are the conditions for a metric adapted to the $\mathbb{Z}_2^2$-symmetric structure to be naturally reductive.
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 R^n 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.
In this summary of Habilitation Thesis, it is outlined author's 18 years research activity on mathematical physics, geometric methods in particle physics and gravity, modifications and applications (after defending his PhD thesis in 1994). Ten most relevant publications are structured conventionally into three "strategic directions": 1) nonholonomic geometric flows evolutions and exact solutions for Ricci solitons and field equations in (modified) gravity theories; 2) geometric methods in quantization of models with nonlinear dynamics and anisotropic field interactions; 3) (non) commutative ge…
In this work we study riemannian metrics on flag manifolds adapted to the symmetries of these homogeneous nonsymmetric spaces. We first introduce the notion of riemannian $Γ$-symmetric space when $Γ$ is a general abelian finite group, the symmetric case corresponding to $Γ=\Z_2$. We describe and study all the riemannian metrics on $SO(2n+1)/SO(r_1)\times SO(r_2)\times SO(r_3)\times SO(2n+1-r_1-r_2-r_3)$ for which the symmetries are isometries. We consider also the lorentzian case and give an example of a lorentzian homogeneous space which is not a symmetric space.
In this paper we prove the strong Sard conjecture for sub-Riemannian structures on 3-dimensional analytic manifolds. More precisely, given a totally nonholonomic analytic distribution of rank 2 on a 3-dimensional analytic manifold, we investigate the size of the set of points that can be reached by singular horizontal paths starting from a given point and prove that it has Hausdorff dimension at most 1. In fact, provided that the lengths of the singular curves under consideration are bounded with respect to a given complete Riemannian metric, we demonstrate that such a set is a semianalytic cu…
We propose a new framework for constructing geometric and physical models on nonholonomic manifolds provided both with Clifford -- Lie algebroid symmetry and nonlinear connection structure. Explicit parametrizations of generic off-diagonal metrics and linear and nonlinear connections define different types of Finsler, Lagrange and/or Riemann-Cartan spaces. A generalization to spinor fields and Dirac operators on nonholonomic manifolds motivates the theory of Clifford algebroids defined as Clifford bundles, in general, enabled with nonintegrable distributions defining the nonlinear connection. …
We formulate an approach to the geometry of Riemann-Cartan spaces provided with nonholonomic distributions defined by generic off-diagonal and nonsymmetric metrics inducing effective nonlinear and affine connections. Such geometries can be modelled by moving nonholonomic frames on (pseudo) Riemannian manifolds and describe various types of nonholonomic Einstein, Eisenhart-Moffat and Finsler-Lagrange spaces with connections compatible to a general nonsymmetric metric structure. Elaborating a metrization procedure for arbitrary distinguished connections, we define the class of distinguished line…
Recently, wind Riemannian structures (WRS) have been introduced as a generalization of Randers and Kropina metrics. They are constructed from the natural data for Zermelo navigation problem, namely, a Riemannian metric $g_R$ and a vector field $W$ (the wind), where, now, the restriction of mild wind $g_R(W,W)<1$ is dropped. Here, the models of WRS spaceforms of constant flag curvature are determined. Indeed, the celebrated classification of Randers metrics of constant flag curvature by Bao, Robles and Shen, extended to the Kropina case in the works by Yoshikawa, Okubo and Sabau, can be used to…
For (2+2)-dimensional nonholonomic distributions, the physical information contained into a spacetime (pseudo) Riemannian metric can be encoded equivalently into new types of geometric structures and linear connections constructed as nonholonomic deformations of the Levi-Civita connection. Such deformations and induced geometric/physical objects are completely determined by a prescribed metric tensor. Reformulation of the Einstein equations in nonholonomic variables (tetrads and new connections, for instance, with constant coefficient curvatures and/or Yang-Mills like potentials) reveals hidde…
We study spin structures on compact simply-connected homogeneous pseudo-Riemannian manifolds (M = G/H, g) of a compact semisimple Lie group G. We classify flag manifolds F = G/H of a compact simple Lie group which are spin. This yields also the classification of all flag manifolds carrying an invariant metaplectic structure. Then we investigate spin structures on principal torus bundles over flag manifolds, i.e. C-spaces, or equivalently simply-connected homogeneous complex manifolds M=G/L of a compact semisimple Lie group G. We study the topology of M and we provide a sufficient and necessary…
If the flag curvature of a Finsler manifold reduces to sectional curvature, then locally either the Finsler metric is Riemannian, or the flag curvature is isotropic.
We consider a special class of Finsler metrics --- square metrics which are defined by a Riemannian metric and a 1-form on a manifold. We show that an analogue of the Beltrami Theorem in Riemannian geometry is still true for square metrics in dimension $n\ge 3$, namely, an $n(\ge 3)$-dimensional square metric is locally projectively flat if and only if it is of scalar flag curvature. Further, we determine the local structure of such metrics and classify closed manifolds with a square metric of scalar flag curvature in dimension $n\ge 3$.
A flag is a sequence of nested subspaces. Flags are ubiquitous in numerical analysis, arising in finite elements, multigrid, spectral, and pseudospectral methods for numerical PDE; they arise in the form of Krylov subspaces in matrix computations, and as multiresolution analysis in wavelets constructions. They are common in statistics too --- principal component, canonical correlation, and correspondence analyses may all be viewed as methods for extracting flags from a data set. The main goal of this article is to develop the tools needed for optimizing over a set of flags, which is a smooth m…
We study and classify almost complex totally geodesic submanifolds of the nearly Kaehler flag manifold $F_{1,2}(\mathbb C^3)$, and of its semi-Riemannian counterpart. We also develop a structural approach to the nearly Kaehler flag manifold $F_{1,2}(\mathbb C^3)$, expressing for example the curvature tensor in terms of the nearly Kaehler structure $J$ and the three canonical orthogonal complex structures.
In this paper we study invariant almost Hermitian geometry on generalized flag manifolds. We will focus on providing examples of Kähler like scalar curvature metric, that is, almost Hermitian structures $(g,J)$ satisfying $s=2s_{\rm C}$, where $s$ is Riemannian scalar curvature and $s_{\rm C}$ is the Chern scalar curvature.
It is well known that the Einstein equation on a Riemannian flag manifold $(G/K,g)$ reduces to a algebraic system, if $g$ is a $G$-invariant metric. In this paper we described this system for all flag manifolds of a classical Lie group. We also determined the number of isotropy summands for all of these spaces and proved certain properties of the set of t-roots for flag manifolds of type $B_n$, $C_n$ and $D_n$.
We model pseudo-Finsler geometries, with pseudo-Euclidean signatures of metrics, for two classes of four dimensional nonholonomic manifolds: a) tangent bundles with two dimensional base manifolds and b) pseudo-Riemannian/ Einstein manifolds. Such spacetimes are enabled with nonholonomic distributions and associated nonlinear connection structures and theirs metrics are solutions of the field equations in general relativity or in generalized gravity theories with nonholonomic variables. We rewrite the Schwarzschild metric in Finsler variables and use it for generating new classes of locally ani…
In this paper we study invariant almost Hermitian geometry on generalized flag manifolds which the isotropy representation decompose into two or three irreducible components. We will provide a classification of such flag manifolds admitting Kähler like scalar curvature metric, that is, almost Hermitian structures $(g,J)$ satisfying $s=2s_C$ where $s$ is Riemannian scalar curvature and $s_C$ is the Chern scalar curvature.
In this article we review the recent results about the flag curvature of invariant Randers metrics on homogeneous manifolds and by using a counter example we show that the formula which obtained for the flag curvature of these metrics is incorrect. Then we give an explicit formula for the flag curvature of invariant Randers metrics on the naturally reductive homogeneous manifolds $(G/H,g)$, where the Randers metric induced by the invariant Riemannian metric $g$ and an invariant vector field $\tilde{X}$ which is parallel with $g$.
We consider manifolds of oriented flags SO(n)/SO(2)xSO(n-3) (n>=4) as 4- and 6-symmetric spaces and indicate characteristic conditions for invariant Riemannian metrics under which the canonical f-structures on these homogeneous $Φ$-spaces belong to the classes Kill f, NKf and G_1f of generalized Hermitian geometry.
It is well known that the Einstein equation on a Riemannian flag manifold $(G/K,g)$ reduces to an algebraic system if $g$ is a $G$-invariant metric. In this paper we obtain explicitly new invariant Einstein metrics on generalized flag manifolds of $Sp(n)$ and $SO(2n)$; and we compute the Einstein system for generalized flag manifolds of type $Sp(n)$. We also consider the isometric problem for these Einstein metrics.
We study the existence of invariant Einstein metrics on real flag manifolds associated to simple and non-compact split real forms of complex classical Lie algebras whose isotropy representation decomposes into two or three irreducible sub-representations. In this situation, one can have equivalent sub-modules, leading to the existence of non-diagonal homogeneous Riemannian metrics. In particular, we prove the existence of non-diagonal Einstein metrics on real flag manifolds.
The local structure of Finsler metrics of constant flag curvature have been historically mysterious. It is proved that every Matsumoto metric of constant flag curvature on a manifold of dimension n \geq 3 is either Riemannian or locally Minkowskian.
In this paper we study flag curvature of invariant $(α,β)$-metrics of the form $\frac{(α+β)^2}α$ on homogeneous spaces and Lie groups. We give a formula for flag curvature of invariant metrics of the form $F=\frac{(α+β)^2}α$ such that $α$ is induced by an invariant Riemannian metric $g$ on the homogeneous space and the Chern connection of $F$ coincides to the Levi-Civita connection of $g$. Then some conclusions in the cases of naturally reductive homogeneous spaces and Lie groups are given.
We indicate a geometric relation between Laplace-Beltrami spectra and eigenfunctions on compact Riemannian symmetric spaces and the Borel-Weil theory using ideas from symplectic geometry and geometric quantization. This is done by associating to each compact Riemannian symmetric space, via Marsden-Weinstein reduction, a generalized flag manifold which covers the space parametrizing all of its maximal totally geodesic tori. In the process we notice a direct relation between the Satake diagram of the symmetric space and the painted Dynkin diagram of its associated flag manifold. We consider in d…
The classical theory of Riemann ellipsoids is formulated naturally as a gauge theory based on a principal G-bundle ${\cal P}$. The structure group G=SO(3) is the vorticity group, and the bundle ${\cal P}=GL_+(3, R})$ is the connected component of the general linear group. The base manifold is the space of positive-definite real $3\times 3$ symmetric matrices, identified geometrically with the space of inertia ellipsoids. The bundle ${\cal P}$ is also a Riemannian manifold whose metric is determined by the kinetic energy. Nonholonomic constraints determine connections on the bundle. In particul…
This article is an exposition of four loosely related remarks on the geometry of Finsler manifolds with constant positive flag curvature. <p> The first remark is that there is a canonical Kahler structure on the space of geodesics of such a manifold. <p> The second remark is that there is a natural way to construct a (not necessarily complete) Finsler n-manifold of constant positive flag curvature out of a hypersurface in suitably general position in complex projective n-space. <p> The third remark is that there is a description of the Finsler metrics of constant curvature on the 2-sphere in t…
Our aim is to define and study a structure for some $(4n+3)$-dimensional manifolds which is named almost coquaternion structure. This structure is composed of three almost cocomplex structures $(ϕ_a, ξ_a, η_a)$, $a = 1,2,3$, which satisfy some relations and may be considered as analogous to the almost quaternion structure for $(4n+4)$-dimensional manifolds. The sphere $S^{4n+3}$ is a typical example of differentiable manifold which admits an almost coquaternion structure $(ϕ_a, ξ_a, η_a)$, $a = 1,2,3$. Using the 1-forms $η_a$ of the almost coquaternion structure of the sphere $S^{4n+3}$, C. Te…
Recently, we developed a method for the study of holonomy properties of non-Riemannian Finsler manifolds and obtained that the holonomy group can not be a compact Lie group, if the Finsler manifold of dimension $> 2$ has non-zero constant flag curvature. The purpose of this paper is to move further, exploring the holonomy properties of projectively flat Finsler manifolds of non-zero constant flag curvature. We prove in particular that projectively flat Randers and Bryant-Shen manifolds of non-zero constant flag curvature have infinite dimensional holonomy group.
We determine a 2-codimensional CR-structure on the slit tangent bundle $T_0M$ of a Finsler manifold $(M, F)$ by imposing a condition regarding the almost complex structure $Ψ$ associated to $F$ when restricted to the structural distribution of a framed $f$-structure. This condition is satisfied when $(M, F)$ is of scalar flag curvature (particularly flat) and in the Riemannian case $(M, g)$ this last condition means that $g$ is of constant curvature. This CR-structure is finally generalized by using one positive number but under more difficult conditions.
We define flag structures on a real three manifold M as the choice of two complex lines on the complexified tangent space at each point of M. We suppose that the plane field defined by the complex lines is a contact plane and construct an adapted connection on an appropriate principal bundle. This includes path geometries and CR structures as special cases. We prove that the null curvature models are given by totally real submanifolds in the flag space SL(3, C)/B, where B is the subgroup of upper triangular matrices. We also define a global invariant which is analogous to the Chern-Simons seco…
We investigate homogeneous geodesics in a class of homogeneous spaces called $M$-spaces, which are defined as follows. Let $G/K$ be a generalized flag manifold with $K=C(S)=S\times K_1$, where $S$ is a torus in a compact simple Lie group $G$ and $K_1$ is the semisimple part of $K$. Then the {\it associated $M$-space} is the homogeneous space $G/K_1$. These spaces were introduced and studied by H.C. Wang in 1954. We prove that for various classes of $M$-spaces the only g.o. metric is the standard metric. For other classes of $M$-spaces we give either necessary, or necessary and sufficient condi…
We investigate bi-Hamiltonian structures and mKdV hierarchies of solitonic equations generated by (semi) Riemannian metrics and curve flows of non-stretching curves. There are applied methods of the geometry of nonholonomic manifolds enabled with metric-induced nonlinear connection (N-connection) structure. On spacetime manifolds, we consider a nonholonomic splitting of dimensions and define a new class of liner connections which are 'N-adapted', metric compatible and uniquely defined by the metric structure. We prove that for such a linear connection, one yields couples of generalized sine-Go…
The book contains a collection of works on Riemann-Cartan and metric-affine manifolds provided with nonlinear connection structure and on generalized Finsler-Lagrange and Cartan-Hamilton geometries and Clifford structures modelled on such manifolds. The choice of material presented has evolved from various applications in modern gravity and geometric mechanics and certain generalizations to noncommutative Riemann-Finsler geometry. The authors develop and use the method of anholonomic frames with associated nonlinear connection structure and apply it to a number of concrete problems: constructi…
Let $P=G/K$ be a semisimple non-compact Riemannian symmetric space, where $G=I_0(P)$ and $K=G_p$ is the stabilizer of $p\in P$. Let $X$ be an orbit of the (isotropy) representation of $K$ on $T_p(P)$ ($X$ is called a real flag manifold). Let $K_0\subset K$ be the stabilizer of a maximal flat, totally geodesic submanifold of $P$ which contains $p$. We show that if all the simple root multiplicities of $G/K$ are at least 2 then $K_0$ is connected and the action of $K_0$ on $X$ is equivariantly formal. In the case when the multiplicities are equal and at least 2, we will give a purely geometric p…
We construct the Einstein equation for an invariant Riemannian metric on the exceptional full flag manifold $M=G_2/T$. By computing a Gröbner basis for a system of polynomials of multi-variables we prove that this manifold admits exactly two non-Kähler invariant Einstein metrics. Thus $G_2/T$ turns out to be the first known example of an exceptional full flag manifold which admits at least one non-Kähler and not normal homogeneous Einstein metric.
Motivated by the geometric theory of differential equations and the variational approach to the equivalence problem for geometric structures on manifolds, we consider the problem of equivalence for distributions with fixed submanifolds of flags on each fiber. We call them flag structures. The construction of the canonical frames for these structures can be given in the two prolongation steps: the first step, based on our previous works, gives the canonical bundle of moving frames for the fixed submanifolds of flags on each fiber and the second step consists of the prolongation of the bundle ob…
For a Kähler Manifold $M$, the "symplectic Dolbeault operators" are defined using the symplectic spinors and associated Dirac operators, in complete analogy to how the usual Dolbeault operators, $\bar\partial$ and $\bar\partial^*$, arise from Dirac operators on the canonical complex spinors on $M$. We give special attention to two special classes of Kähler manifolds: Riemann surfaces and flag manifolds ($G/T$ for $G$ a simply-connected compact semisimple Lie group and $T$ a maximal torus). In the case of flag manifolds, we work with the Hermitian structure induced by the Killing form and a cho…
