The theory of second-order differential equations based on Finsler geometry (Q5939014)

The authors summarize some results obtained by L. Berwald, M. Matsumoto and others. It is known that the graphs \(y= f(x)\) of any second order ordinary differential equation \(y'' = \Phi(x,y, y')\) can be realized as geodesics of some Finsler metric on a domain of \(\mathbb{R}^2\). Since Finsler metrics having the same geodesics as point sets are pointwise projectively equivalent, one can conclude that any second order ordinary differential equation is associated with a projective equivalence of Finsler metrics. Therefore, a differential equation \(y'' =\Phi(x,y, y')\) can be reduced to \(d^2 \bar{y}/d\bar{x}^2=0\) by a change of variables \((x,y)\to (\bar{x}, \bar{y})\) if and only if any associated Finsler metric is projectively flat. The Douglas tensor is a projective invariant, thus if a metric in the associated projective equivalence class is of Douglas type, then every metric in this projective equivalence class is of Douglas type. An interesting fact is that \(\Phi(x,y,y')\) is a polynomial in \(y'\) of degree at most three if and only if any associated Finsler metric is of Douglas type. The above results are due to \textit{L. Berwald} [Ann. Math. (2) 48, 193--215 (1947; Zbl 0029.16602)]. Given a Finsler metric \( L =L(x,y; u, v)\), let \( A(x,y, z):=L(x,y; 1, z)\). The geodesic \(y= f(x)\) of \(L\) satisfies the equation \(y'' =\Phi(x,y, y')\) where \[ \Phi(x,y, z):= \frac{ A_y - A_{xz} -A_{yz} z }{ A_{zz} }. \] Thus \(L\) is of Douglas type if and only if \( \Phi\) is a polynomial in \(z\) of degree at most three, or equivalently, the fourth order derivative satisfies \(\Phi_{zzzz}= 0\). The authors give an explicit formula for this equation.