Twistor geometry of a pair of second order ODEs (Q356702): Difference between revisions

After a brief survey of definition for used notations, the paper deals with the path geometry as an equivalent class of systems of second-order ordinary differential equations (ODEs) \[ Y''= F(X, Y, Z, Y', Z'),\quad Z''= G(X, Y, Z, Y', Z'), \] where \(F\), \(G\) are arbitrary functions on an open set in \(\mathbb{R}^5\) of class \(C^5\). An idea that allows the reconstruction of a system of ODEs with vanishing invariants for a given conformal structure, the Ricci-flat case in particular, is presented; thereby several important results are established and illustrated by examples. The authors continue really their presentation of results on the development of twistor theory, which has been studied in [the second and the third author, J. Geom. Phys. 56, No. 9, 1790--1809 (2006; Zbl 1096.53028); the second author and \textit{S. West}, Commun. Math. Phys. 272, No. 1, 85--118 (2007; Zbl 1147.53022)]. The article consists of nine sections: (1) Introduction, (2) Systems of ODEs and their invariants, (3) Twistor correspondence, (4) From ASD conformal structures to systems of ODEs, (5) Wiłczynski invariants, (6) Symmetries of torsion-free path geometries, (7) Examples, (8) Finsler structures with scalar flag curvature, (9) Conclusions and outlook. Proofs of the few results are omitted; reference is made to previously published papers. The analysis involved is mostly interesting but the detailed statements are too complicated to reproduce.