Ricci flow on Finsler surfaces (Q1748231)

The authors introduce a new Ricci flow called \textit{Ricci-DeTurck flow}. More precisely, for a compact Finsler surface \(M\) and for a given an initial Finsler structure \(F_0\), the authors state that there exists a positive real number \(T\) and a smooth one-parameter family of Finsler structures \((\widetilde{F}(t))_{t\in [0,T)}\), where \(\widetilde{F}(t)\) is the solution of the following boundary value problem \[ \frac{\partial\widetilde{F^2}(t)}{\partial t}= -2\widetilde{F^2}(t)\operatorname{Ric}(\widetilde{g}(t))-\mathcal{L}_{\zeta}\widetilde{F^2}(t), \text{ and }\widetilde{F}(0)=F_0, \] where \(\operatorname{Ric}(\widetilde{g}(t))\) is the Ricci scalar for \(\widetilde{g}(t)\), the Finsler tensor metric associated to \(\widetilde{F}(t)\), and \(\mathcal{L}_\zeta\) represents the Lie derivative w.r.t \(\zeta\), an explicit vector field on \(SM\) (the sphere bundle) (Theorem 1). Next, by pulling back \(\widetilde{F}(t)\) through a one-parameter family of diffeomorphisms on \(SM\) (Proposition 5.2), the authors obtain a one-parameter family of Finsler structures \((F(t))_{t\in [0,T)}\) where \(F(t)\) is the solution of \(\displaystyle \frac{\partial}{\partial t}\log F(t)=-\operatorname{Ric}(g(t)),\text{ and }F(0)=F_0\) (Theorem 2). The authors furnish two delightful applications (Examples 5.1 and 5.2).