We construct a class of Finsler metrics in three-dimensional space such that all their geodesics are lines, but not all planes are extremal for their Hausdorff area functionals. This shows that if the Hausdorff measure is used as notion of volume on Finsler spaces, then totally geodesic submanifolds are not necessarily minimal, filling results such as those of Sergey Ivanov do not hold, and integral-geometric formulas do not exist.
Geometry-Topology Seminar
Thursday, February 23, 2006 - 4:30pm
Juan-Carlos Alvarez
University of Lille, France