Finsler geometry and natural foliations on the tangent bundle (Q2644321)

The aim of the present paper is to provide a foliation in the tangent bundle \(TM\) of a Finsler manifold with Sasaki-Finsler metric and to investigate the conditions that the Riemannian Sasaki metric is bundle like for the foliation. A Riemannian metric on an \((n+p)\)-dimensional manifold \(M\) endowed with an integrable foliation \(D\) is called bundle like if each geodesic tangent to the annihilator of \(D\) at one point remains tangent to it at all points [\textit{B. L. Reinhart}, Ann. Math. (2) 69, 119--132 (1959; Zbl 0122.16604)]. One of the main theorems is: The Finsler manifold is a Landsberg manifold if and only if the vertical foliation on the tangent bundle with Sasaki-Finsler metric is totally geodesic. And using the bundle-like horizontal Liouville foliation, the authors prove a characterization of Finsler spaces of constant curvature. The theorem is: Let \( F^{m}=(M,F)\) be a Finsler manifold and \(k, c\) two positive numbers such that \(c \sqrt{k}=1\). Then the following conditions are equivalent: (1) \(F^{m}\) is a Finsler manifold of constant curvature \(k\). (2) The Sasaki-Finsler metric \(G\) on the indicatrix bundle \(IM(c)\) is bundle-like for the horizontal Liouville foliation on \(IM(c)\). (3) The horizontal Liouville vector field is a Killing vector field on \((IM(c), G)\). (4) The curvature-angular form of \(F^{m}\) vanishes identically on \(IM(c)\). This new approach to foliations will give a new method to study Finsler geometry and physical applications globally. The following recent book is a good reference: \textit{A. Bejancu} and \textit{H. R. Farran}, Foliations and geometric structures, MIA series, Springer, Dordrecht (2006; Zbl 1092.53021).