Related papers: Branching geodesics in sub-Riemannian geometry

We study the regularity and branching of strictly abnormal minimizing geodesics in sub-Riemannian geometry. We construct examples of real-analytic sub-Riemannian manifolds admitting minimizing geodesics that lose regularity at an interior…

We study homogeneous geodesics of sub-Riemannian manifolds, i.e., normal geodesics that are orbits of one-parametric subgroups of isometries. We obtain a criterion for a geodesic to be homogeneous in terms of its initial momentum. We 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 $H$(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 study random walks on sub-Riemannian manifolds using the framework of retractions, i.e., approximations of normal geodesics. We show that such walks converge to the correct horizontal Brownian motion if normal geodesics are approximated…

We provide a new and simple system of equations for the normal sub-Riemannian geodesics. These use a partial connection that we show is canonically available, given a choice of complement to the distribution. We also describe conditions…

We provide the first known family of examples of integrable homogeneous sub-Riemannian structures admitting strictly abnormal geodesics. These examples were obtained through the analysis of the equivalence problem for sub-Riemannian Engel…

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 generalize the concept of sub-Riemannian geometry to infinite-dimensional manifolds modeled on convenient vector spaces. On a sub-Riemannian manifold $M$, the metric is defined only on a sub-bundle $\calH$ of the tangent bundle $TM$,…

In the present paper we study pseudo-Riemannian submanifolds which have 3-planar geodesic normal sections.We consider W-curves (helices) on pseudo-Riemannian submanifolds. Finally, we give neccessary and sufficient condition for a normal…

A minimal geodesic on a Riemannian manifold is a geodesic defined on $\mathbb{R}$ that lifts to a globally distance minimizing curve on the universal covering. Bangert proved that there is a lower bound for the number of geometrically…

Geodesics become an essential element of the geometry of a semi-Riemannian manifold. In fact, their differences and similarities with the (positive definite) Riemannian case, constitute the first step to understand semi-Riemannian Geometry.…

The space of all non degenerate bilinear structures on a manifold $M$ carries a one parameter family of pseudo Riemannian metrics. We determine the geodesic equation, covariant derivative, curvature, and we solve the geodesic equation…

The principal properties of geodesic normal coordinates are the vanishing of the connection components and first derivatives of the metric components at some point. It is well-known that these hold only at points where the connection has…

We classify totally geodesic and parallel hypersurfaces of four-dimensional non-reductive homogeneous pseudo-Riemannian manifolds.

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 use techniques from nonsmooth analysis and geometric measure theory to provide new examples of complete sub-Riemannian structures satisfying the Minimizing Sard conjecture. In particular, we show that complete sub-Riemannian structures…

We explicitly describe the length minimizing geodesics for a sub-Riemannian structure of the elliptic type defined on $SL(2, \mathbb{R})$. Our method uses a symmetry reduction which translates the problem into a Riemannian problem on a two…

We define harmonic maps between sub-Riemannian manifolds by generalizing known definitions for Riemannian manifolds. We establish conditions for when a horizontal map into a Lie group with a left-invariant metric structure is a harmonic…

We find geodesics, shortest arcs, cut loci, first conjugate loci, distances between arbitrary elements for some left-invariant sub-Riemannian metrics on the Lie groups $SU(2)\times\mathbb{R}$ and $SO(3)\times\mathbb{R}$.