A Conformal Co-Symplectic Structure on the Space of Pseudo-Riemannian Geodesics
Abstract
The classical construction of the symplectic structure on the space of geodesic trajectories via Hamiltonian reduction fails in the pseudo-Riemannian setting due to a dimensional mismatch created by the null geodesics. This paper proposes a new, unified approach. We first construct the space of all geodesic trajectories directly as the quotient of the space of geodesics curves by the affine reparametrization group. The analysis of the orbits of this group action reveals a key geometric distribution. To describe this distribution globally, we introduce a canonical object, the "conformal co-symplectic structure" , defined by pushing forward the conformal class of the inverse of the original symplectic form . We prove that the image of this structure coincides with the geometric distribution identified previously. On the subspace of time-like and space-like geodesics, this structure is non-degenerate and defines a conformal class of symplectic forms. On the null subspace, its image is a codimension- distribution that we prove is the canonical contact structure on the space of light rays.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2510.05155,
title = {A Conformal Co-Symplectic Structure on the Space of Pseudo-Riemannian Geodesics},
author = {Patrick Iglesias-Zemmour},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.05155},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
This construction comes from an unpublished work, first formulated in a private letter, which was then cited in the literature, and has been incorporated into a forthcoming book, "The Geometry of Motion". The purpose of this article is to provide the first official and independent publication of this method. A link to the scanned copy of the original letter is provided as reference