arXiv subjects

Miguel Ángel Javaloyes

Publications and source records attributed to Miguel Ángel Javaloyes.

14 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Generalized Fermat's principle and Snell's law for cone structures and applications

Fermat's principle is fully generalized to the case where a smooth interface separates two cone structures -- Lorentz-Finsler lightcones -- representing wave propagation in a potentially inhomogeneous, anisotropic, time-dependent and discontinuous medium. The interface, wave source and receiver are assumed to be a hypersurface, a submanifold and a curve in the spacetime, respectively, of any causal character. For a trajectory to fullfil Fermat's principle -- i.e., to be a critical point of the arrival time functional -- its direction must change at the interface, obeying a precise condition that generalizes Snell's law of refraction when the wave crosses the interface, or the law of reflection when it remains in a single medium. Both laws are analyzed in detail to establish the conditions ensuring the existence and uniqueness of refracted and reflected trajectories, and to determine whether they actually minimize the arrival time. Applications to Zermelo's navigation problem and the determination of geodesics in discretized spacetimes are also emphasized.

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arXiv2024

A general model for wildfire propagation with wind and slope

A geometric model for the computation of the firefront of a forest wildfire which takes into account several effects (possibly time-dependent wind, anisotropies and slope of the ground) is introduced. It relies on a general theoretical framework, which reduces the hyperbolic PDE system of any wave to an ODE in a Lorentz-Finsler framework. The wind induces a sort of double semi-elliptical fire growth, while the influence of the slope is modeled by means of a term which comes from the Matsumoto metric (i.e., the standard non-reversible Finsler metric that measures the time when going up and down a hill). These contributions make a significant difference from previous models because, now, the infinitesimal wavefronts are not restricted to be elliptical. Even though this is a technical complication, the wavefronts remain computable in real time. Some simulations of evolution are shown, paying special attention to possible crossovers of the fire.

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arXiv2024

Gielis superformula and wildfire models

Experimental data on the propagation of wildfires show that its short-time spread has a double semi-elliptical shape. Our main goal is to show that this shape can be accurately approximated in polar coordinates by choosing suitable parameters in Gielis superformula and, then, implemented in a geometrical model for wildfire propagation. In this model, the firefront can be determined by computing the lightlike geodesics of a specific Finsler spacetime, and we derive a concise and efficient expression of the geodesic equations in these coordinates.

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arXiv2023

An account on links between Finsler and Lorentz Geometries for Riemannian Geometers

Some links between Lorentz and Finsler geometries have been developed in the last years, with applications even to the Riemannian case. Our purpose is to give a brief description of them, which may serve as an introduction to recent references. As a motivating example, we start with Zermelo navigation problem, where its known Finslerian description permits a Lorentzian picture which allows for a full geometric understanding of the original problem. Then, we develop some issues including: (a) the accurate description of the Lorentzian causality using Finsler elements, (b) the non-singular description of some Finsler elements (such as Kropina metrics or complete extensions of Randers ones with constant flag curvature), (c) the natural relation between the Lorentzian causal boundary and the Gromov and Busemann ones in the Finsler setting, and (d) practical applications to the propagation of waves and firefronts.

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arXiv2023

Lightlike hypersurfaces and time-minimizing geodesics in cone structures

Some well-known Lorentzian concepts are transferred into the more general setting of cone structures, which provide both the causality of the spacetime and the notion of cone geodesics without making use of any metric. Lightlike hypersurfaces are defined within this framework, showing that they admit a unique folitation by cone geodesics. This property becomes crucial after proving that, in globally hyperbolic spacetimes, achronal boundaries are lightlike hypersurfaces under some restrictions, allowing one to easily obtain some time-minimization properties of cone geodesics among causal curves departing from a hypersurface of the spacetime.

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arXiv2023

The Einstein-Hilbert-Palatini formalism in Pseudo-Finsler Geometry

A systematic development of the so-called Palatini formalism is carried out for pseudo-Finsler metrics $L$ of any signature. Substituting in the classical Einstein-Hilbert-Palatini functional the scalar curvature by the Finslerian Ricci scalar constructed with an independent nonlinear connection $\mathrm{N}$, the affine and metric equations for $(\mathrm{N},L)$ are obtained. In Lorentzian signature with vanishing mean Landsberg tensor Lan$_i$, both the Finslerian Hilbert metric equation and the classical Palatini conclusions are recovered by means of a combination of techniques involving the (Riemannian) maximum principle and an original argument about divisibility and fiberwise analyticity. Some of these findings are also extended to (positive definite) Riemannian metrics by using the eigenvalues of the Laplacian. When Lan$_i\neq 0$, the Palatini conclusions fail necessarily, however, a good number of properties of the solutions remain. The framework and proofs are built up in detail.

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arXiv2022

Anisotropic connections and parallel transport in Finsler spacetimes

The general notion of anisotropic connections $\nabla$ is revisited, including its precise relations with the standard setting of pseudo-Finsler metrics, i.e., the canonic nonlinear connection and the (linear) Finslerian connections. In particular, the vertically trivial Finsler connections are identified canonically with anisotropic connections. So, these connections provide a simple intrinsic interpretation of a part of any Finsler connection closer to the Koszul formulation in $M$. Moreover, a new covariant derivative and parallel transport along curves is introduced, taking first a self-propagated vector ({\em instantaneous observer}) so that it serves as a reference for the propagation of the others. The covariant derivative of any anisotropic tensor is given by the natural derivative of a curve of tensors obtained by parallel transport along a curve and, in the case of pseudo-Finsler metrics, this is used to characterize the Levi-Civita--Chern anisotropic connection as the one that preserves the length of parallely propagated vectors.

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arXiv2022

Finsler pp-waves and the Penrose Limit

The Penrose plane wave limit is a remarkable property of Lorentzian spacetimes. Here, we discuss its extension to Finsler spacetimes by introducing suitable lightlike coordinates and adapting the Lorentzian definition of pp-waves. New examples of such Finsler pp-waves are also presented.

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arXiv2022

On the significance of the stress-energy tensor in Finsler spacetimes

We revisit the physical arguments which lead to the definition of the stress-energy tensor $T$ in the Lorentz-Finsler setting $(M,L)$ starting at classical Relativity. Both the standard heuristic approach using fluids and the Lagrangian one are taken into account. In particular, we argue that the Finslerian breaking of Lorentz symmetry makes $T$ an anisotropic 2-tensor (i. e., a tensor for each $L$-timelike direction), in contrast with the energy-momentum vectors defined on $M$. Such a tensor is compared with different ones obtained by using a Lagrangian approach. The notion of divergence is revised from a geometric viewpoint and, then, the conservation laws of $T$ for each observer field are revisited. We introduce a natural {\em anisotropic Lie bracket derivation}, which leads to a divergence obtained from the volume element and the non-linear connection associated with $L$ alone. The computation of this divergence selects the Chern anisotropic connection, thus giving a geometric interpretation to previous choices in the literature.

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arXiv2020

Curvature computations in Finsler Geometry using a distinguished class of anisotropic connections

We show how to compute tensor derivatives and curvature tensors using affine connections. This allows for all computations to be obtained without using coordinate systems, in a way that parallels the computations appearing in classical Riemannian Geometry. In particular, we obtain Bianchi identities for the curvature tensor of any anisotropic connection, we compare the curvature tensors of any two anisotropic connections, and we find a family of anisotropic connections which are well suited to study the geometry of Finsler metrics.

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arXiv2020

Foundations of Finsler spacetimes from the Observers' Viewpoint

Physical foundations for relativistic spacetimes are revisited, in order to check at what extent Finsler spacetimes lie in their framework. Arguments based on inertial observers (as in the foundations of Special Relativity and Classical Mechanics) are shown to correspond with a double linear approximation in the measurement of space and time. While General Relativity appears by dropping the first linearization, Finsler spacetimes appear by dropping the second one. The classical Ehlers-Pirani-Schild approach is carefully discussed and shown to be compatible with the Lorentz-Finsler case. The precise mathematical definition of Finsler spacetime is discussed by using the {\em space of observers}. Special care is taken in some issues such as: the fact that a Lorentz-Finsler metric would be physically measurable only on the causal directions for a cone structure, the implications for models of spacetimes of some apparently innocuous hypotheses on differentiability, or the possibilities of measurement of a varying speed of light.

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arXiv2019

Stationary-Complete Spacetimes with non-standard splittings and pre-Randers metrics

Using the relativistic Fermat's principle, we establish a bridge between stationary-complete manifolds which satisfy the observer-manifold condition and pre-Randers metrics, namely, Randers metrics without any restriction on the one-form. As a consequence, we give a description of the causal ladder of such spacetimes in terms of the elements associated with the pre-Randers metric: its geodesics and the associated distance. We obtain, as applications of this interplay, the description of conformal maps of Killing submersions, and existence and multiplicity results for geodesics of pre-Randers metrics and magnetic geodesics.

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arXiv2019

Anisotropic tensor calculus

We introduce the anisotropic tensor calculus, which is a way of handling with tensors that depend on the direction remaining always in the same class. This means that the derivative of an anisotropic tensor is a tensor of the same type. As an application, we show how to define derivations using anisotropic linear connections in a manifold. In particular, we show that the Chern connection of a Finsler metric can be interpreted as the Levi-Civita connection and we introduce the anisotropic curvature tensor. We also relate the concept of anisotropic connection with the classical concept of linear connections in the vertical bundle. Furthermore, we also introduce the concept of anisotropic Lie derivative.

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arXiv2017

Some criteria for Wind Riemannian completeness and existence of Cauchy hypersurfaces

Recently, a link between Lorentzian and Finslerian Geometries has been carried out, leading to the notion of wind Riemannian structure (WRS), a generalization of Finslerian Randers metrics. Here, we further develop this notion and its applications to spacetimes, by introducing some characterizations and criteria for the completeness of WRS's. As an application, we consider a general class of spacetimes admitting a time function $t$ generated by the flow of a complete Killing vector field (generalized standard stationary spacetimes or, more precisely, SSTK ones) and derive simple criteria ensuring that its slices $t=$ constant are Cauchy. Moreover, a brief summary on the Finsler/Lorentz link for readers with some acquaintance in Lorentzian Geometry, plus some simple examples in Mathematical Relativity, are provided.

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