Volume forms for time orientable Finsler spacetimes

DOI10.1016/J.GEOMPHYS.2016.11.005MaRDI QIDQ501300zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Nicoleta Voicu

Publication date 29 December 2016

Published in Journal of Geometry and Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1507.00847

zbMATH Keywords

Lorentz-Finsler manifoldtime orientationvolume form

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Local differential geometry of Finsler spaces and generalizations (areal metrics) (53B40) Global differential geometry of Lorentz manifolds, manifolds with indefinite metrics (53C50) Global differential geometry of Finsler spaces and generalizations (areal metrics) (53C60)

Abstract: The paper proposes extensions of the usual notions of Finslerian volume to time orientable Finsler spacetime manifolds. The basic idea is to replace, in the classical Busemann-Hausdorff and Holmes-Thompson definitions, integration on the indicatrices of the given metric (which are, in Lorentzian signature, non-compact, generally leading to infinite integrals) with integration on ellipsoids. Under certain conditions regarding the time orientations of the given spacetime, these ellipsoids can be attached to the given Lorentzian Finsler metric by means of a variational procedure. While the construction of the Holmes-Thompson volume form requires the determinant of the Finslerian metric tensor to be defined and smooth on the entire slit tangent bundle, the Busemann-Hausdorff-type volume form can be constructed even if the metric tensor is not defined or is degenerate along some directions - which is the case with the large majority of the known Lorentzian Finsler metrics. This feature makes it possible to build well-defined field-theoretical integrals having such metrics as a background.

Review text

The author provides an extension of the notions of Busemann-Hausdorff and Holmes-Thompson volume to time-orientable Finslerian spacetime manifolds. These notions are designed to make sense in the case when the Lorentz-Finsler metric tensor is either not defined or degenerate along some directions in each tangent space. The idea is to look for a positive definite Riemannian metric tensor to be canonically attached to the given Lorentz-Finsler metric. The closed unit balls of this Riemannian metric are compact and can then be used, instead of the Finslerian non-compact unit balls, in Busemann-Hausdorff and Holmes-Thompson-type constructions. The author ends the paper by three examples: a smooth metric obtained as a linearized Finslerian perturbation of the Minkowski metric \(\text{diag}(1,-1,-1,-1)\) of \(\mathbb{R}^4\), a non-smooth Berwald-Moor metric for which it is still possible to define volume forms, and a Bogoslovsky-type metric for which one can only determine the minimal Riemannian volume form.

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Cites work

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Cited in

(5)

• On the definition and examples of cones and Finsler spacetimes
• Volume forms in Finsler spaces
• Weak field equations and generalized FRW cosmology on the tangent Lorentz bundle
• Natural volume forms on pseudo-Finslerian manifolds with \(m\)th root metrics
• Fixed energy solutions to the Euler-Lagrange equations of an indefinite Lagrangian with affine Noether charge

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