Related papers: Sub-Riemannian geometry on infinite-dimensional ma…

We consider the group of sense-preserving diffeomorphisms $\Diff S^1$ of the unit circle and its central extension, the Virasoro-Bott group, with their respective horizontal distributions chosen to be Ehresmann connections with respect to a…

This paper is the third in a series dedicated to the fundamentals of sub-Riemannian geometry and its implications in Lie groups theory: "Sub-Riemannian geometry and Lie groups. Part I", math.MG/0210189, available at…

Reparametrization invariant Sobolev metrics on spaces of regular curves have been shown to be of importance in the field of mathematical shape analysis. For practical applications, one usually discretizes the space of smooth curves and…

We study minimal surfaces in generic sub-Riemannian manifolds with sub-Riemannian structures of co-rank one. These surfaces can be defined as the critical points of the so-called {\it horizontal} area functional associated to the canonical…

We consider a generalization of Riemannian geometry that naturally arises in the framework of control theory. Let $X$ and $Y$ be two smooth vector fields on a two-dimensional manifold $M$. If $X$ and $Y$ are everywhere linearly independent,…

There are many equivalent definitions of Riemannian geodesics. They are naturally generalised to sub-Riemannian manifold, but become non-equivalent. We give a review of different definitions of geodesics of a sub-Riemannian manifold and…

The geodesics for a sub-Riemannian metric on a three-dimensional contact manifold $M$ form a 1-parameter family of curves along each contact direction. However, a collection of such contact curves on $M$, locally equivalent to the solutions…

We are interested in the geometry of the group $\mathcal{D}_q(M)$ of diffeomorphisms preserving a contact form $\theta$ on a manifold $M$. We define a Riemannian metric on $\mathcal{D}_q(M)$, compute the corresponding geodesic equation, and…

We formalize the ``metric bundle'' viewpoint by defining, for any smooth $n$--manifold $M$, the open fiberwise cones $\mathcal{G}^{p,q}\subset S^2\Tstar M$ of nondegenerate symmetric bilinear forms with fixed signature $(p,q)$, and we…

By virtue of the well-known theorem, a structure Lie group K of a principal bundle $P$ is reducible to its closed subgroup H iff there exists a global section of the quotient bundle P/K. In gauge theory, such sections are treated as Higgs…

This paper uncovers a large class of left-invariant sub-Rie\-mannian systems on Lie groups that admit explicit solutions with certain properties, and provides geometric origins for a class of important curves on Stiefel manifolds, called…

We consider a family of Riemannian manifolds M such that for each unit speed geodesic gamma of M there exists a distinguished bijective correspondence L between infinitesimal translations along gamma and infinitesimal rotations around it.…

We investigate the rudiments of Riemannian geometry on orbit spaces $M/G$ for isometric proper actions of Lie groups on Riemannian manifolds. Minimal geodesic arcs are length minimising curves in the metric space $M/G$ and they can hit…

We study curvature invariants of a sub-Riemannian manifold (i.e., a manifold with a Riemannian metric on a non-holonomic distribution) related to mutual curvature of several pairwise orthogonal subspaces of the distribution, and prove…

Considering Riemannian submersions, we find necessary and sufficient conditions for when sub-Riemannian normal geodesics project to curves of constant first geodesic curvature or constant first and vanishing second geodesic curvatures. We…

We consider coefficient bodies $\mathcal M_n$ for univalent functions. Based on the L\"owner-Kufarev parametric representation we get a partially integrable Hamiltonian system in which the first integrals are Kirillov's operators for a…

We consider $H$(eisenberg)-type groups whose law of left translation gives rise to a bracket generating distribution of step 2. In the contrast with sub-Riemannian studies we furnish the horizontal distribution with a nondegenerate…

We solve explicitly the geodesic equation for a wide class of (pseudo)-Riemannian homogeneous manifolds (G/H,m), including those with G compact, as well as non-compact semisimple Lie groups, under a simple algebraic condition for the metric…

Sub-Riemannian Geometry is proved to play an important role in many applications, e.g., Mathematical Physics and Control Theory. The simplest example of sub-Riemannian structure is provided by the 3-D Heisenberg group. Sub-Riemannian…

We consider sub-Riemannian spaces admitting an isometry group that is maximal in the sense that any linear isometry between the horizontal tangent spaces is realized by a global isometry. We will show that these spaces have a canonical…