Ten ways to Berwald manifolds -- and some steps beyond

TL;DR

This paper provides ten equivalent characterizations of Berwald manifolds within Finsler geometry, explores the implications of relaxing convexity conditions, and introduces the concept of Berwald--Matveev manifolds.

Contribution

It introduces new equivalent conditions for Berwald manifolds and generalizes the concept to Berwald--Matveev manifolds by relaxing convexity assumptions.

Findings

Ten equivalent conditions characterizing Berwald manifolds.

Generalization of Szabó's metrization theorem.

Introduction of Berwald--Matveev manifolds.

Abstract

After summarizing some necessary preliminaries and tools, including Berwald derivative and Lie derivative in pull-back formalism, we present ten equivalent conditions, each of which characterizes Berwald manifolds among Finsler manifolds. These range from Berwald's classical definition to the existence of a torsion-free covariant derivative on the base manifold compatible with the Finsler function and Aikou's characterization of Berwald manifolds. Finally, we study some implications of V. Matveev's observation according to which quadratic convexity may be omitted from the definition of a Berwald manifold. These include, among others, a generalization of Z. I. Szab\'o's well-known metrization theorem, and leads also to a natural generalization of Berwald manifolds, to Berwald--Matveev manifolds.