On the energy functional on Finsler manifolds and applications to stationary spacetimes (Q641849)

As in Riemannian geometry, geodesics on a Finsler manifold \((M, F)\) satisfy a variational principle. More precisely, a smooth curve \(x:[a, b]\rightarrow M\) is a constant speed geodesic if and only if it is a stationary point of the energy functional \(J(x)=\int _a^bF^2(x, \frac{dx}{dt})\,ds\) on the space of sufficiently smooth curves on \(M\). The first part of the present paper studies the main properties of this energy functional in the infinite dimensional setting of the Sobolev-Hilbert manifold of \(H^1\)-curves satisfying very general boundary conditions. In particular, a fully detailed proof of the Palais-Smale condition for the energy functional is obtained. In the second part, a new application of Finsler geometry to general relativity by means of a Fermat metric is presented.