This book focuses on the elementary but essential problems in Riemann-Finsler Geometry, which include a repertoire of rigidity and comparison theorems, and an array of explicit examples, illustrating many phenomena which admit only Finslerian interpretations. "This book offers the most modern treatment of the topic ..." EMS Newsletter.

In 1854, B Riemann introduced the notion of curvature for spaces with a family of inner products. There was no significant progress in the general case until 1918, when P Finsler studied the variation problem in regular metric spaces. Around 1926, L Berwald extended Riemann's notion of curvature to regular metric spaces and introduced an important non-Riemannian curvature using his connection for regular metrics. Since then, Finsler geometry has developed steadily. In his Paris address in 1900, D Hilbert formulated 23 problems, the 4th and 23rd problems being in Finsler's category. Finsler geometry has broader applications in many areas of science and will continue to develop through the efforts of many geometers around the world.Usually, the methods employed in Finsler geometry involve very complicated tensor computations. Sometimes this discourages beginners. Viewing Finsler spaces as regular metric spaces, the author discusses the problems from the modern metric geometry point of view. The book begins with the basics on Finsler spaces, including the notions of geodesics and curvatures, then deals with basic comparison theorems on metrics and measures and their applications to the Levy concentration theory of regular metric measure spaces and Gromov's Hausdorff convergence theory.

This monograph presents recent developments in comparison geometry and geometric analysis on Finsler manifolds. Generalizing the weighted Ricci curvature into the Finsler setting, the author systematically derives the fundamental geometric and analytic inequalities in the Finsler context. Relying only upon knowledge of differentiable manifolds, this treatment offers an accessible entry point to Finsler geometry for readers new to the area. Divided into three parts, the book begins by establishing the fundamentals of Finsler geometry, including Jacobi fields and curvature tensors, variation formulas for arc length, and some classical comparison theorems. Part II goes on to introduce the weighted Ricci curvature, nonlinear Laplacian, and nonlinear heat flow on Finsler manifolds. These tools allow the derivation of the Bochner–Weitzenböck formula and the corresponding Bochner inequality, gradient estimates, Bakry–Ledoux’s Gaussian isoperimetric inequality, and functional inequalities in the Finsler setting. Part III comprises advanced topics: a generalization of the classical Cheeger–Gromoll splitting theorem, the curvature-dimension condition, and the needle decomposition. Throughout, geometric descriptions illuminate the intuition behind the results, while exercises provide opportunities for active engagement. Comparison Finsler Geometry offers an ideal gateway to the study of Finsler manifolds for graduate students and researchers. Knowledge of differentiable manifold theory is assumed, along with the fundamentals of functional analysis. Familiarity with Riemannian geometry is not required, though readers with a background in the area will find their insights are readily transferrable.

This introductory book uses the moving frame as a tool and develops Finsler geometry on the basis of the Chern connection and the projective sphere bundle. It systematically introduces three classes of geometrical invariants on Finsler manifolds and their intrinsic relations, analyzes local and global results from classic and modern Finsler geometry, and gives non-trivial examples of Finsler manifolds satisfying different curvature conditions.

The present monograph is motivated by two distinct aims. Firstly, an endeavour has been made to furnish a reasonably comprehensive account of the theory of Finsler spaces based on the methods of classical differential geometry. Secondly, it is hoped that this monograph may serve also as an introduction to a branch of differential geometry which is closely related to various topics in theoretical physics, notably analytical dynamics and geometrical optics. With this second object in mind, an attempt has been made to describe the basic aspects of the theory in some detail - even at the expense of conciseness - while in the more specialised sections of the later chapters, which might be of interest chiefly to the specialist, a more succinct style has been adopted. The fact that there exist several fundamentally different points of view with regard to Finsler geometry has rendered the task of writing a coherent account a rather difficult one. This remark is relevant not only to the development of the subject on the basis of the tensor calculus, but is applicable in an even wider sense. The extensive work of H. BUSEMANN has opened up new avenues of approach to Finsler geometry which are independent of the methods of classical tensor analysis. In the latter sense, therefore, a full description of this approach does not fall within the scope of this treatise, although its fundamental l significance cannot be doubted.

In this book we study sprays and Finsler metrics. Roughly speaking, a spray on a manifold consists of compatible systems of second-order ordinary differential equations. A Finsler metric on a manifold is a family of norms in tangent spaces, which vary smoothly with the base point. Every Finsler metric determines a spray by its systems of geodesic equations. Thus, Finsler spaces can be viewed as special spray spaces. On the other hand, every Finsler metric defines a distance function by the length of minimial curves. Thus Finsler spaces can be viewed as regular metric spaces. Riemannian spaces are special regular metric spaces. In 1854, B. Riemann introduced the Riemann curvature for Riemannian spaces in his ground-breaking Habilitationsvortrag. Thereafter the geometry of these special regular metric spaces is named after him. Riemann also mentioned general regular metric spaces, but he thought that there were nothing new in the general case. In fact, it is technically much more difficult to deal with general regular metric spaces. For more than half century, there had been no essential progress in this direction until P. Finsler did his pioneering work in 1918. Finsler studied the variational problems of curves and surfaces in general regular metric spaces. Some difficult problems were solved by him. Since then, such regular metric spaces are called Finsler spaces. Finsler, however, did not go any further to introduce curvatures for regular metric spaces. He switched his research direction to set theory shortly after his graduation.

This introductory book uses the moving frame as a tool and develops Finsler geometry on the basis of the Chern connection and the projective sphere bundle. It systematically introduces three classes of geometrical invariants on Finsler manifolds and their intrinsic relations, analyzes local and global results from classic and modern Finsler geometry, and gives non-trivial examples of Finsler manifolds satisfying different curvature conditions. Book jacket.