A class of Finsler metrics with quadratic curvatures (Q2287019)

The authors characterize Ricci-quadratic and \(W\)-quadratic spherically symmetric Finsler metrics. Let \(F\) be a Finsler metric on \(B^n(\nu) :=\{x\in\mathbb{R}^n:|x|<\nu\}\). The metric \(F\) is said to be spherically symmetric if it satisfies \(F(Ax,Ay)=F(x,y)\) for all \(x\in B^n(\nu)\), \(y\in T_x B^n(\nu)\) and \(A\in O(n)\). It is known that the Finsler metric \(F\) on \(B^n(\nu)\) is spherically symmetric if and only if there is a function \(\phi : [0,\infty)\times \mathbb{R}\longrightarrow\mathbb{R}\), such that \(F(x,y)=|y|\phi(|x|,\frac{<x,y>}{|y|})=:u\phi(r,s)\), where \((x,y)\in TB^n(\nu)\backslash\{0\}\), \(u=|y|\), \(r=|x|\), \(s=\frac{<x,y>}{|y|}\). The main results of the paper are the following two theorems: Theorem 1. Let \(F=|y|\phi(|x|,\frac{<x,y>}{|y|})\) be a spherically symmetric Finsler metric on \(B^n(\nu)\). Then, \(F\) is Ricci-quadratic if and only if \(R_s-sR_{ss}=0\), where \(R\) is a function defined in terms of the curvature by (2.13). Theorem 2. Let \(F=|y|\phi(|x|,\frac{<x,y>}{|y|})\) be a spherically symmetric Finsler metric on \(B^n(\nu)\). Then, \(F\) is \(W\)-quadratic if and only if \(R_{2s}=0\), where \(R_2\) is defined in a similar way.