Zermelo navigation in pseudo-Finsler metrics

Abstract

We generalize the notion of Zermelo navigation to arbitrary pseudo-Finsler metrics possibly defined in conic subsets. The translation of a pseudo-Finsler metric $F$ is a new pseudo-Finsler metric whose indicatrix is the translation of the indicatrix of $F$ by a vector field $W$ at each point, where $W$ is an arbitrary vector field. Then we show that the Matsumoto tensor of a pseudo-Finsler metric is equal to zero if and only if it is the translation of a semi-Riemannian metric, and when $W$ is homothetic, the flag curvature of the translation coincides with the one of the original one up to the addition of a non-positive constant. In this case, we also give a description of the geodesic flow of the translation.

arXiv comment23 pages

References in corpus (2)

• Wind Finslerian structures: from Zermelo's navigation to the causality of spacetimes
• $t$-periodic light rays in conformally stationary spacetimes via Finsler geometry

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