Stiff connections in pseudo-Euclidean manifolds

Abstract

For a smooth manifold endowed with a (similarity) pseudo-Euclidean structure, a stiff connection $\nabla$ is a symmetric affine connection such that geodesics of $\nabla$ are straight lines of the pseudo-Euclidean structure while the first-order infinitesimal holonomy at each point is an infinitesimal isometry. In this paper, we give a complete classification of stiff connections in a local chart, identify canonical models and start investigating the global geometry of (similarity) pseudo-Euclidean manifolds endowed with a stiff connection. In the conformal class of the pseudo-Euclidean metric g, a stiff connection $\nabla$ defines a pseudo-Riemannian metric h such that unparameterized geodesics of $\nabla$ coincide with unparameterized geodesics of g but have a constant speed with respect to the so-called isochrone metric h. In particular, we obtain a new natural connection on the open unit ball that provides a compromise between properties of Cayley-Klein and Poincar\'e hyperbolic models.Comment: 51 pages, 5 figures, 1 tabl