English

Geodesics in the configuration spaces of two points in R^n

Differential Geometry 2020-07-07 v3 Algebraic Topology

Abstract

We determine explicit formulas for geodesics (in the Euclidean metric) in the configuration space of ordered pairs (x,x') of points in R^n which satisfy d(x,x')>=epsilon. We interpret this as two or three (depending on the parity of n) geodesic motion-planning rules for this configuration space. In the associated unordered configuration space, we need not prescribe that the points stay apart by epsilon. For this space, with a Euclidean metric, we show that geodesic motion-planning rules correspond to ordinary motion-planning rules on RP^{n-1}.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2001.00850,
  title  = {Geodesics in the configuration spaces of two points in R^n},
  author = {Donald M Davis},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2001.00850},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

Replacement of paper which just did the ordered case