An Inverse Problem from sub-Riemannian geometry

An Inverse Problem from Sub-riemannian Geometry

The geodesics for a sub-Riemannian metric on a threedimensional contact manifold M form a 1-parameter family of curves along each contact direction. However, a collection of such contact curves on M , locally equivalent to the solutions of a fourth-order ODE, are the geodesics of a sub-Riemannian metric only if a sequence of invariants vanish. The first of these, which was first identified by F...

Sub - Riemannian geometry :

Take an n-dimensional manifold M . Endow it with a distribution, by which I mean a smooth linear subbundle D ⊂ TM of its tangent bundle TM . So, for x ∈ M , we have a k-plane Dx ⊂ TxM , and by letting x vary we obtain a smoothly varying family of k-planes on M . Put a smoothly varying family g of inner products on each k-plane. The data (M,D, g) is, by definition, a sub-Riemannian geometry. Tak...

Sub-riemannian Geometry

Sub-riemannian geometry from intrinsic viewpoint

Gromov proposed to extract the (differential) geometric content of a sub-riemannian space exclusively from its Carnot-Carathéodory distance. One of the most striking features of a regular sub-riemannian space is that it has at any point a metric tangent space with the algebraic structure of a Carnot group, hence a homogeneous Lie group. Siebert characterizes homogeneous Lie groups as locally co...

Variational Aspects of the Geodesic Problem in Sub-riemannian Geometry

We study the local geometry of the space of horizontal curves with endpoints freely varying in two given submanifolds P and Q of a manifold M endowed with a distribution D ⊂ TM. We give a different proof, that holds in a more general context, of a result by Bismut [2, Theorem 1.17] stating that the normal extremizers that are not abnormal are critical points of the sub-Riemannian action functio...