Differential Geometry of Spray and Finsler Spaces

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 lengt