Semi-indefinite-inner-product and generalized Minkowski spaces

TL;DR

This paper develops a unified theory of semi-indefinite-inner-product spaces and generalized Minkowski spaces, extending classical concepts and exploring their geometric and metric properties, including the structure of Minkowski-Finsler spaces.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of semi-indefinite-inner-product spaces and generalizes Minkowski spaces using a new product, linking them to Minkowski-Finsler geometry.

Findings

Generalized Minkowski space can be embedded in semi-indefinite-inner-product space.

The sphere of radius i in such spaces can be viewed as a Minkowski-Finsler space.

Homogeneous Minkowski-Finsler spaces have distances determined by the Minkowski-product.

Abstract

In this paper we parallelly build up the theories of normed linear spaces and of linear spaces with indefinite metric, called also Minkowski spaces for finite dimensions in the literature. In the first part of this paper we collect the common properties of the semi- and indefinite-inner-products and define the semi-indefinite-inner-product and the corresponding structure, the semi-indefinite-inner-product space. We give a generalized concept of Minkowski space embedded in a semi-indefinite-inner-product space using the concept of a new product, that contains the classical cases as special ones. In the second part of this paper we investigate the real, finite dimensional generalized Minkowski space and its sphere of radius $i$. We prove that it can be regarded as a so-called Minkowski-Finsler space and if it is homogeneous one with respect to linear isometries, then the Minkowski-Finsler distance its points can be determined by the Minkowski-product.