It is shown that, on a manifold with a Finsler metric of Lorentzian signature, the lightlike geodesics satisfy the following variational principle. Among all lightlike curves from a point q (emission event) to a timelike curve γ (worldline of receiver), the lightlike geodesics make the arrival time stationary. Here “arrival time” refers to a parametrization of the timelike curve γ. This variati...

Lagrange geometry is the geometry of the tensor field defined by the fiberwise Hessian of a nondegenerate Lagrangian function on the total space of a tangent bundle. Finsler geometry is the geometrically most interesting case of Lagrange geometry. In this paper, we study a generalization which consists of replacing the tangent bundle by a general tangent manifold, and the Lagrangian by a family...

The kinetic theory is formulated with respect to anholonomic frames of reference on curved spacetimes. By using the concept of nonlinear connection we develop an approach to modelling locally anisotropic kinetic processes and, in corresponding limits, the relativistic non–equilibrium thermodynamics with local anisotropy. This lead to a unified formulation of the kinetic equations on (pseudo) Ri...

We apply the method of moving anholonomic frames, with associated nonlinear connections, in (pseudo) Riemannian spaces and examine the conditions when various types of locally anisotropic (la) structures (Lagrange, Finsler like and more general ones) could be modeled in general relativity. New classes of solutions of the Einstein equations with generic local anisotropy are constructed. We formu...

We prove Hessian comparison theorems, Laplacian comparison theorems and volume comparison theorems of Finsler manifolds under various curvature conditions. As applications, we derive Mckean type theorems for the first eigenvalue of Finsler manifolds, as well as generalize a result on fundamental group due to Milnor to Finsler manifolds.

One of the key properties of the length of a curve is its lower semicontinuity : if a sequence of curves γi converges to a curve γ, then length(γ) ≤ lim inf length(γi). Here the weakest type of pointwise convergence suffices. There are higher-dimensional analogs of this semicontinuity for Riemannian (and even Finsler) metrics. For instance, the Besicovitch inequality (see, e.g., [1] and [4]) im...

A complex Finsler metric is an upper semicontinuous function F : T 1,0 M → R + defined on the holomorphic tangent bundle of a complex Finsler manifold M , with the property that F (p; ζv) = |ζ|F (p; v) for any (p; v) ∈ T 1,0 M and ζ ∈ C. Complex Finsler metrics do occur naturally in function theory of several variables. The Kobayashi metric introduced in 1967 ([K1]) and its companion the Carath...

Based on the previous research, in this paper we study the dual flatness of a special class of Finsler metrics called general (α, β)-metrics, which is defined by a Riemannian metric α and a 1-form β. By using a new kind of deformation technique, we construct many non-trivial explicit dually flat general (α, β)-metrics.

A general approach to formulation of supergravity in higher order anisotropic superspaces (containing as particular cases different supersymmetric extensions and prolongations of Riemann, Finsler, Lagrange and Kaluza–Klein spaces) is given. We analyze three models of locally anisotropic supergravity.

We begin the study of billiard dynamics in Finsler geometry. We deduce the Finsler billiard reflection law from the “least action principle”, and extend the basic properties of Riemannian and Euclidean billiards to the Finsler and Minkowski settings, respectively. We prove that the Finsler billiard map is a symplectomorphism, and compute the mean free path of the Finsler billiard ball. For the ...