Locally symmetric homogeneous Finsler spaces

Abstract

Let $(M,F)$ be a connected Finsler space and $d$ the distance function of $(M,F)$. A Clifford translation is an isometry $\rho$ of $(M,F)$ of constant displacement, in other words such that $d(x,\rho(x))$ is a constant function on $M$. In this paper we consider a connected simply connected symmetric Finsler space and a discrete subgroup $\Gamma$ of the full group of isometries. We prove that the quotient manifold $(M, F)/\Gamma$ is a homogeneous Finsler space if and only if $\Gamma$ consists of Clifford translations of $(M,F)$. In the process of the proof of the main theorem, we classify all the Clifford translations of symmetric Finsler spaces.