Magnetic curves in three-dimensional quasi-para-Sasakian geometry (Q305871)

A magnetic field on a manifold \(M\) is a closed 2-form \(\Omega\) on \(M\). If \((M,g)\) is a (pseudo-)Riemannian manifold then we associate the Lorentz force \(F_\Omega\) thought as a \((1,1)\)-tensor field given by \(g(F_\Omega X, Y)= \Omega(X, Y)\) for any vector fields \(X,Y\in \mathcal{X}(M)\). Then, the magnetic curves on the magnetic manifold \((M,g,\Omega)\) are the solutions \(\gamma(t)\) of the Lorentz equation: \(\nabla_{\gamma'}{\gamma'} = F_\Omega(\gamma')\). In this paper the authors study (non-geodesic) normal magnetic curves of three-dimensional normal almost paracontact manifolds. They compute their curvature and torsion as well as a Lancret invariant (in the non-Legendre case) and the mean curvature vector field. Two 1-parameter families of magnetic curves (first space-like and second time-like) are obtained in quasi-para-Sasakian manifolds which are not para-Sasakian; these are non-Legendre helices. We recall that the almost paracontact structure \((g,\eta,\phi,\xi)\) on \(M^{2n+1}\) differs from the almost contact structure \((g,\eta,\phi,\xi)\), that the structural endomorphism \(\phi\) induces on the \(2n\)-dimensional distribution \(D:= \ker \eta\) an almost paracomplex structure, and that \(g(\phi \cdot, \phi \cdot) = -g+ \eta \otimes \eta\).