English

From flows and metrics to dynamics

Dynamical Systems 2007-05-23 v1

Abstract

Recall that a vector field on an n-dimensional differentiable manifold M is a mapping X defined on M with values in the tangent bundle TM that assigns to each point xMx\in M a vector X(x) in the tangent space TxMT_x M. A vector field may be interpreted alternatively as the right-hand side of an autonomous system of first-order ordinary differential equations, i.e., a flow. Now we show that any flow can be enveloped by a conservative dynamics using a semi-Riemann metric g on M. This kind of dynamics was called {\it geometric dynamics} [7]-[9]. The given vector field, the initial semi-Riemann metric, the Levi-Civita connection, and an associated (1,1)-tensor field are used to build a new geometric structure (e.g., semi-Riemann-Jacobi, semi-Riemann-Jacobi-Lagrange, semi-Finsler-Jacobi, etc) on the manifold M ensuring that all the trajectories of a geometric dynamics are pregeodesics (Lorentz-Udri\c{s}te world-force law). Implicitly, we solved a problem rised first by Poincar\'e: find a suitable geometric structure that converts the trajectories of a given vector field into geodesics.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.math/0007059,
  title  = {From flows and metrics to dynamics},
  author = {C. Udriste and A. Udriste},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:math/0007059},
  year   = {2007}
}

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12 pages