The local structure of rotationally symmetric Finsler surfaces with vanishing flag curvature is completely determined in this paper. A geometric method for constructing such surfaces is introduced. The construction begins with a planar vector field X that depends on two functions of one variable. It is shown that the flow of X could be used to generate a generalized Finsler surface with zero flag curvature. Moreover, this generalized structure reduces to a regular Finsler metric if and only if X has an isochronous center. By relating X to a Liénard system, we obtain the isochronicity condition and discover numerous new examples of complete flat Finsler surfaces, depending on an odd function and an even function.

The characterization of projectively flat Finsler metrics on an open subset in $R^n$ is the Hilbert’s fourth problem in the regular case. Locally projectively flat Finsler manifolds form an important class of Finsler manifolds. Every Finsler metric induces a spray on the manifold via geodesics. Therefore, it is a natural problem to investigate the geometric and topological properties of manifolds equipped with a spray. In this paper, we study the Pontrjagin classes of a manifold equipped with a locally projectively flat spray and show that such manifold must have zero Pontrjagin classes.

Let $(M, F, m)$ be a forward complete Finsler measure space. In this paper, we prove that any nonnegative global subsolution in $L^p(M)(p>1)$ to the heat equation on $\mathbb R^+\times M$ is uniquely determined by the initial data. Moreover, we give an $L^p(0<p\leq 1)$ Liouville-type theorem for nonnegative subsolutions u to the heat equation on $\mathbb R\times M$ by establishing the local $L^p$ mean value inequality for u on M with Ric$_N\geq -K(K\geq 0)$.

In this paper, we consider projective deformation of the geodesic system of Finsler spaces by holonomy invariant functions. Starting with a Finsler spray $S$ and a holonomy invariant function ${\mathcal{P}}$, we investigate the metrizability property of the projective deformation $\widetilde{S}=S-2\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}{\mathcal{P}}{\mathcal{C}}$. We prove that for any holonomy invariant nontrivial function ${\mathcal{P}}$ and for almost every value $\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}\in \mathbb{R}$, such deformation is not Finsler metrizable. We identify the cases where such deformation can lead to a metrizable spray. In these cases, the holonomy invariant function ${\mathcal{P}}$ is necessarily one of the principal curvatures of the geodesic structure.

Infinitely many new Einstein Finsler metrics are constructed on several homogeneous spaces. By imposing certain conditions on the homogeneous spaces, it is shown that the Ricci constant condition becomes an ordinary differential equation. The regular solutions of this equation lead to a two parameter family of Einstein Finsler metrics with vanishing $S$ curvature.

In this paper, we investigate the holomorphic sections of holomorphic Finsler bundles over both compact and non-compact complete complex manifolds. We also inquire into the holomorphic vector fields on compact and non-compact complete complex Finsler manifolds. We get vanishing theorems in each case according to different certain curvature conditions. This work can be considered as generalizations of the classical results on Kähler manifolds and hermitian bundles.

In this paper, we study a class of homogeneous Finsler metrics of vanishing $S$-curvature on a $(4n+3)$-dimensional sphere. We find a second order ordinary differential equation that characterizes Einstein metrics with constant Ricci curvature $1$ in this class. Using this equation we show that there are infinitely many homogeneous Einstein metrics on $S^{4n+3}$ of constant Ricci curvature $1$ and vanishing $S$-curvature. They contain the canonical metric on $S^{4n+3}$ of constant sectional curvature $1$ and the Einstein metric of non-constant sectional curvature given by Jensen in 1973.

In this paper, a newnotion of scalar curvature for a Finsler metric $F$ is introduced, and two conformal invariants $Y(M,F)$ and $C(M,F)$ are defined. We prove that there exists a Finsler metric with constant scalar curvature in the conformal class of $F$ if the Cartan torsion of $F$ is sufficiently small and $Y(M,F)C(M,F)<Y({{\mathbb{S}}^{n}})$ where $Y({{\mathbb{S}}^{n}})$ is the Yamabe constant of the standard sphere.

An action of a Lie group $G$ on a smooth manifold $M$ is called cohomogeneity one if the orbit space ${M}/{G}\;$ is of dimension 1. A Finsler metric $F$ on $M$ is called invariant if $F$ is invariant under the action of $G$. In this paper, we study invariant Randers metrics on cohomogeneity one manifolds. We first give a sufficient and necessary condition for the existence of invariant Randers metrics on cohomogeneity one manifolds. Then we obtain some results on invariant Killing vector fields on the cohomogeneity one manifolds and use them to deduce some sufficient and necessary conditions for a cohomogeneity one Randers metric to be Einstein.

There are several notions of Ricci curvature tensor in Finsler geometry and spray geometry. One of them is defined by the Hessian of the well-known Ricci curvature. In this paper we will introduce a new notion of Ricci curvature tensor and discuss its relationship with the Ricci curvature and some non-Riemannian quantities. Using this Ricci curvature tensor, we shall have a better understanding of these non-Riemannian quantities.

Randers metrics are a special class of Finsler metrics. Every Randers metric can be expressed in terms of a Riemannian metric and a vector field via Zermelo navigation. In this paper, we show that a Randers metric has constant scalar curvature if the Riemannian metric has constant scalar curvature and the vector field is homothetic

In this paper we study several non-Riemannian quantities in Finsler geometry. These non-Riemannian quantities play an important role in understanding the geometric properties of Finsler metrics. In particular, we study a new non-Riemannian quantity defined by the $\text{S}$-curvature. We show some relationships among the flag curvature, the $\text{S}$-curvature, and the new non-Riemannian quantity.

Some families of Randers metrics of scalar flag curvature are studied in this paper. Explicit examples that are neither locally projectively flat nor of isotropic $S$-curvature are given. Certain Randers metrics with Einstein $\alpha $ are considered and proved to be complex. Three dimensional Randers manifolds, with $\alpha $ having constant scalar curvature, are studied.

In this paper, we introduce a new algebraic notion, weakly symmetric Lie algebras, to give an algebraic description of an interesting class of homogeneous Riemann-Finsler spaces, weakly symmetric Finsler spaces. Using this new definition, we are able to give a classification of weakly symmetric Finsler spaces with dimensions 2 and 3. Finally, we show that all the non-Riemannian reversible weakly symmetric Finsler spaces we find are non-Berwaldian and with vanishing $\text{S}$-curvature. This means that reversible non-Berwaldian Finsler spaces with vanishing $\text{S}$-curvature may exist at large. Hence the generalized volume comparison theorems due to $\text{Z}$. Shen are valid for a rather large class of Finsler spaces.

In this paper, we study a long existing open problem on Landsberg metrics in Finsler geometry. We consider Finsler metrics defined by a Riemannian metric and a 1-form on a manifold. We show that a regular Finsler metric in this form is Landsbergian if and only if it is Berwaldian. We further show that there is a two-parameter family of functions, $\phi \,=\,\phi \left( s \right)$ , for which there are a Riemannian metric $\alpha $ and a 1-form $\beta $ on a manifold $M$ such that the scalar function $F\,=\,\alpha \phi \left( \beta /\alpha \right)$ on $TM$ is an almost regular Landsberg metric, but not a Berwald metric.

We consider Ptolemy's inequality in a metric space setting. It is not hard to see that CAT(0) spaces satisfy this inequality. Although the converse is not true in full generality, we show that if our Ptolemaic space is either a Riemannian or Finsler manifold, then it must also be CAT(0). Ptolemy's inequality is closely related to inversions of metric spaces. We exploit this link to establish a new characterization of Euclidean space amongst all Riemannian manifolds.

The solutions to Hilbert's Fourth Problem in the regular case are projectively flat Finsler metrics. In this paper, we consider the so-called $\left( \alpha ,\,\beta \right)$-metrics defined by a Riemannian metric $\alpha$ and a 1-form $\beta$, and find a necessary and sufficient condition for such metrics to be projectively flat in dimension $n\,\ge \,3$.

In this paper, we prove a global rigidity theorem for negatively curved Finsler metrics on a compact manifold of dimension $n\,\ge \,3$. We show that for such a Finsler manifold, if the flag curvature is a scalar function on the tangent bundle, then the Finsler metric is of Randers type. We also study the case when the Finsler metric is locally projectively flat.

In the paper, we study the shortest time problem on a Riemannian space with an external force. We show that such problem can be converted to a shortest path problem on a Randers space. By choosing an appropriate external force on the Euclidean space, we obtain a non-trivial Randers metric of zero flag curvature. We also show that any positively complete Randers metric with zero flag curvature must be locally Minkowskian.