Sobolev metrics on shape space. II: Weighted Sobolev metrics and almost local metrics (Q1951049)

This paper builds on the work of previous papers of the authors, mainly [ibid. 3, No. 4, 389--438 (2011; Zbl 1262.58004)], and deals with the geometry of shape space \(B_i(M,N)\) given by the quotient of the manifold of immersions \(\mathrm{Imm}(M,N)\) from a compact manifold \(M\) to a complete manifold \(N\), modulo the group of diffeomorphisms \(\mathrm{Diff}(M)\) of \(M\). In particular, the authors discuss metrics like \[ G_f(h,k)=\int_M\sum\limits_{i=0}^p \Phi_i(\mathrm{Vol}(f))\overline{g}((P_i)_fh,k)\mathrm{vol}(f^*\overline{g}), \] where \(\overline{g}\) is Riemannian metric on \(N\), \(f\in \mathrm{Imm}(M,N)\), \(\Phi_i\) are positive real-valued functions, and \((P_i)_f\) are operators like some power of the Laplacian \(\Delta^{f^*\overline{g}}\). In certain situations it is shown that the geodesic equation for this metric is well-posed and the exponential mapping is a local diffeomorphism.