Geodesically reversible Finsler 2-spheres of constant curvature

Date

2006

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Abstract

A Finsler space is said to be geodesically reversible if each oriented geodesic can be reparametrized as a geodesic with the reverse orientation. A reversible Finsler space is geodesically reversible, but the converse need not be true. In this note, building on recent work of LeBrun and Mason, it is shown that a geodesically reversible Finsler metric of constant flag curvature on the 2-sphere is necessarily projectively flat. As a corollary, using a previous result of the author, it is shown that a reversible Finsler metric of constant flag curvature on the 2-sphere is necessarily a Riemannian metric of constant Gauss curvature, thus settling a long- standing problem in Finsler geometry.

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Scholars@Duke

Bryant

Robert Bryant

Phillip Griffiths Distinguished Professor of Mathematics

My research concerns problems in the geometric theory of partial differential equations.  More specifically, I work on conservation laws for PDE, Finsler geometry, projective geometry, and Riemannian geometry, including calibrations and the theory of holonomy.

Much of my work involves or develops techniques for studying systems of partial differential equations that arise in geometric problems.  Because of their built-in invariance properties, these systems often have special features that make them difficult to treat by the standard tools of analysis, and so my approach uses ideas and techniques from the theory of exterior differential systems, a collection of tools for analyzing such PDE systems that treats them in a coordinate-free way, focusing instead on their properties that are invariant under diffeomorphism or other transformations.

I’m particularly interested in geometric structures constrained by natural conditions, such as Riemannian manifolds whose curvature tensor satisfies some identity or that supports some additional geometric structure, such as a parallel differential form or other geometric structures that satisfy some partial integrability conditions and in constructing examples of such geometric structures, such as Finsler metrics with constant flag curvature.

I am also the Director of the Simons Collaboration Special Holonomy in Geometry, Analysis, and Physics, and a considerable focus of my research and that of my students is directed towards problems in this area.


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