Invariant Matsumoto metrics on homogeneous spaces (Q2446406)

An important family of Finsler metrics on a Riemannian manifold \((M,g)\) is the family of \((\alpha,\beta)\)-metrics, in particular, the Matsumoto metric \(\alpha^2/(\alpha-\beta)\), where \(\alpha(x,y)=\sqrt{g_{ij}(x)y^iy^j}\), \(\beta(x,y)=b_i(x)y^i\), and \(b\) is a \(1\)-form. The Riemannian metric \(g\) induces an inner product on any cotangent space \(T^*M\) that in turn induces an isomorphism between \(T^*M\) and \(TM\). Then, the \(1\)-form \(b\) corresponds to a vector field \(\widetilde X\) on \(M\) such that \(g(y,\widetilde X(x))=\beta(x,y)\). Therefore, the the Matsumoto metric \(F=\alpha^2/(\alpha-\beta)\) is defined as: \[ F(x,y)=\frac{\alpha^2(x,y)}{\alpha(x,y)-g(\widetilde X(x),y)}. \] One of the fundamental quantities associated with a Finsler space is the flag curvature that is computed as \[ K(P,Y)=\frac{g_{_Y}(R(U,Y)Y,U)}{g_{_Y}(Y,Y)g_{_Y}(U,U)-g_{_Y}^2(Y,U)}, \] where \(g_{_Y}(U,V)=\frac12(\partial^2/\partial s\partial t)(F^2(Y+sU+tV))_{|s=t=0}\) and \(P=\text{span}\{U,Y\}\). In this paper, the author considers invariant Matsumoto metrics which are induced by invariant Riemannian metrics and invariant vector fields on homogeneous spaces, and gives their flag curvature formulas. If \(G\) is a compact Lie group, \(H\) a closed subgroup of \(G\), \(\mathfrak{g}\) and \(\mathfrak{h}\) are the Lie algebras of \(G\) and \(H\) respectively, and \(g_{_0}\) is a bi-invariant Riemannian metric on \(G\), then the tangent space of the homogeneous space \(G/H\) is given by the orthogonal complement \(\mathfrak{m}\) of \(\mathfrak{h}\) in \(\mathfrak{g}\) with respect to \(g_{_0}\). Each invariant metric \(g\) on \(G/H\) is determined by its restriction to \(\mathfrak{m}\). If \(\widetilde X\) is an invariant vector field on \(G/H\) which is parallel with respect to \(g\) with \(\sqrt{g(\widetilde X,\widetilde X)}<1/2\), and \(F\) is the Matsumoto metric induced by \(g\) and \(\widetilde X\), then the author finds the flag curvature \(K(P,Y)\) for the flag \((P,Y)\) in \(T_H(G/H)\). Also, some special cases of naturally reductive spaces and bi-invariant metrics are studied. Finally, the author presents some examples of geodesically complete Matsumoto spaces, and shows that if \((M,g)\) is a homogeneous Riemannian manifold and \(F\) is a Matsumoto metric of Berwald type defined by \(g\) and a \(1\)-form \(b\), then \((M,F)\) is geodesically complete, and if \(M\) is connected then \((M,F)\) is complete.