Related papers: On symmetries of a sub--Riemannian structure with …

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…

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…

The authors found geodesics, shortest arcs, cut loci, and conjugate sets for left-invariant sub-Riemannian matric on the Lie group $SL(2)$, which is right-invariant relative to the Lie subgroup $SO(2)\subset SL(2)$ (in other words, for…

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 paper is a study of geodesic in two-dimensional pseudo-Riemannian metrics. Firstly, the local properties of geodesics in a neighborhood of generic parabolic points are investigated. The equation of the geodesic flow has singularities at…

We prove sectional and Ricci-type comparison theorems for the existence of conjugate points along sub-Riemannian geodesics. In order to do that, we regard sub-Riemannian structures as a special kind of variational problems. In this setting,…

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…

In this paper we study geodesics of left-invariant sub-Riemannian metrics on SO(3) and almost-Riemannian metrics on $S^2$. These structures are connected with each other, and it is possible to use information about one of them to obtain…

In this paper, we define and study strong right-invariant sub-Riemannian structures on the group of diffeomorphisms of a manifold with bounded geometry. We derive the Hamiltonian geodesic equations for such structures, and we provide…

Let M be either a simply connected pseudo-Riemannian space of constant curvature or a rank one Riemannian symmetric space (other than the octonion hyperbolic plane), and consider the space L(M) of oriented geodesics of M. The space L(M) is…

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…

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 prove that a foliation $(M, F)$ of codimension $q$ on a $n$-dimen\-sio\-nal pseudo-Riemannian manifold is pseudo-Riemannian if and only if any geodesic that is orthogonal at one point to a leaf is orthogonal to every leaf it intersects.…

We find geodesics, shortest arcs, cut loci, first conjugate loci for some left-invariant sub-Riemannian metrics on the Lie groups $SU(1,1)\times\mathbb{R}$ and $SO_0(2,1)\times\mathbb{R}$.

In the present paper we show that the geodesic flows of a sub-Riemannian metric and that of a Riemannian extension commute if and only if the extended metric is parallel with respect to a certain connection. This helps us to describe the…

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…

This paper studies the reduction by symmetry of variational problems on Lie groups and Riemannian homogeneous spaces. We derive the reduced equations of motion in the case of Lie groups endowed with a left-invariant metric, and on Lie…

Following our approach to metric Lie algebras developed in math.DG/0312243 we propose a way of understanding pseudo-Riemannian symmetric spaces which are not semi-simple. We introduce cohomology sets (called quadratic cohomology) associated…

We introduce and discuss (local) symmetries of geometric structures. These symmetries generalize the classical (locally) symmetric spaces to various other geometries. Our main tools are homogeneous Cartan geometries and their explicit…

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…