Metric geometry of infinite-dimensional Lie groups and their homogeneous spaces (Q2279824)

The purpose of this paper is the study of the geometry of Lie groups \(G\) with a continuous Finsler metric, assuming the existence of a subgroup \(K\) such that the metric is right-invariant for the action of \(K\). The author presents a systematic study of the metric and geodesic structure of homogeneous spaces \(M\) obtained by the quotient \(M \cong G/K\). Of particular interest are left-invariant metrics of \(G\) which are then bi-invariant for the action of \(K\). Then the author focuses on the geodesic structure of groups \(K\) that admit bi-invariant metrics, proving that one-parameter groups are short paths for those metrics, and characterizing all other short paths. Applications of the results are provided in two cases: manifolds of Banach space linear operators, and groups of maps from compact manifolds. The manifolds in this article are considered as modeled with charts in a Hausdorff locally convex topological vector space. As is known, there is no canonical definition of the differentiability of mappings of locally convex spaces. The author does not specify what definition of differentiability he means. However, many infinite-dimensional vector spaces have internal and interesting continuous norms or seminorms that allow this problem to be solved.