On the classifiation of Landsberg spherically symmetric Finsler metrics

TL;DR

This paper classifies Landsberg and Berwald spherically symmetric Finsler metrics, proving that in higher dimensions such metrics are Riemannian or have specific forms, and provides new explicit examples of non-regular Landsberg metrics.

Contribution

It offers a complete classification of spherically symmetric Landsberg and Berwald Finsler metrics, including new explicit examples of non-regular Landsberg metrics.

Findings

All higher-dimensional Landsberg spherically symmetric metrics are Riemannian or have specific geodesic spray formulas.

All regular Landsberg spherically symmetric metrics are Riemannian.

New explicit examples of non-regular non-Berwaldian Landsberg metrics are constructed.

Abstract

In this paper, as an application of the inverse problem of calculus of variations, we investigate two compatibility conditions on the spherically symmetric Finsler metrics. By making use of these conditions, we focus our attention on the Landsberg spherically symmetric Finsler metrics. We classify all spherically symmetric manifolds of Landsberg or Berwald types. For the higher dimensions $n\geq 3$, we prove that: all Landsberg spherically symmetric manifolds are either Riemannian or their geodesic sprays have a specific formula; all regular Landsberg spherically symmetric metrics are Riemannian; all (regular or non-regular) Berwald spherically symmetric metrics are Riemannian. Moreover, we establish new unicorns, i.e., new explicit examples of non-regular non-Berwaldian Landsberg metrics are obtained. For the two-dimensional case, we characterize all Berwald or Landsberg spherically symmetric surfaces.