The metric geometry of the manifold of Riemannian metrics over a closed manifold (Q607798)

Let \(\mathcal{M}\) be the infinite dimensional Fréchet manifold of all \(C^\infty\) Riemannian metrics on a fixed closed, finite-dimensional, orientable manifold \(M\). This manifold has a natural weak Riemannian metric called the \(L^2\) metric because it induces an \(L^2\)-type scalar product on the tangent spaces of \(\mathcal{M}\). The main result of the paper is that this weak metric induces a metric space structure on \(\mathcal{M}\). This result is non-trivial because, a priori, the distance function induced by a weak metric on a Fréchet manifold is only a pseudometric, meaning that the distance between some points can be zero. Thus, in their work motivated by research in computer vision, \textit{P. W. Michor} and \textit{D. Mumford} found examples of weak Riemannian metrics on Fréchet manifolds for which the distance between any two points is zero [Doc. Math., J. DMV 10, 217--245 (2005; Zbl 1083.58010)]. A motivation for studying the metrics on the manifold \(\mathcal{M}\) comes from Teichmüller theory. Indeed, if \(M\) is a Riemann surface of genus greater than one, then the Techmüller space \(\mathcal{T}\) of \(M\) is a quotient of the submanifold of \(\mathcal{M}\) which consists of hyperbolic metrics. It can be shown that the \(L^2\) metric on \(\mathcal{M}\) descends to \(\mathcal{T}\) and is isometric (up to a constant scalar factor) to the Weil-Petersson metric on \(\mathcal{T}\). An important ingredient of the proof of the main result is an explicit relation between the induced distance between two metrics in \(\mathcal{M}\) and the corresponding volume forms on the initial manifold \(M\).