Local midpoints on smooth manifolds (Q490690)

Usually, there are three natural approaches to the notion of \textit{midpoint}: the first is a geodesic approach (on manifolds), the second is a metric approach (in metric spaces) while the last is a \textit{midpoint by symmetry}, based on a geometric structure that includes a point reflection. The first main purpose of this study is to consider smooth manifolds equipped with sprays and to define the midpoints locally via the geodesic approach. It is proved that the local midpoint operation satisfies a variant of the Lie-Trotter product formula. A second aim is to consider midpoints of symmetry in the setting of symmetric spaces modeled on general Banach spaces. On these manifolds there exists a canonical spray and these two methods of considering midpoints agree. Some of these very interesting results are generalized to Finsler manifolds.