Geodesics of random Riemannian metrics (Q2447592)

The authors study geodesics of random Riemannian metrics generated by Gaussian fields. The basic assumption made on the metric is that its law is stationary and ergodic with respect to the action of the Euclidean group, and that the local values of the metric are independent when separated by sufficient Euclidean distance. The geodesics are considered as paths traced out by traveling particles. The authors show that the law of the particle observed environment is absolutely continuous with respect to the law of the random metric and they provide an explicit form for its Radon-Nikodým derivative. They use this result to prove a ``local Markov property'' along an unbounded geodesic, demonstrating that it eventually encounters any type of geometric phenomenon. They also develop some general results on conditional Gaussian measures. The main theorem states that, under relatively general conditions, a geodesic chosen with random initial conditions (independent of the metric) is almost surely not minimizing. To prove this result, the authors show that a minimizing geodesic is guaranteed to eventually pass over a certain ``bump surface'', which locally has constant positive curvature. By using Jacobi fields, they show that this is sufficient to destabilize the minimizing property. The ideas and the techniques used come from probability theory, differential geometry and the theory of disordered systems.