Metrics on Spaces of Immersions where Horizontality Equals Normality

Abstract: We study metrics on shape space of immersions that have a particularly simple horizontal bundle. More specifically, we consider reparametrization invariant Sobolev metrics $G$ on the space $\operatorname{Imm}(M,N)$ of immersions of a compact manifold $M$ in a Riemannian manifold $(N,\overline{g})$. The tangent space $T_f\operatorname{Imm}(M,N)$ at each immersion $f$ has two natural splittings: one into components that are tangential/normal to the surface $f$ (with respect to $\overline{g}$) and another one into vertical/horizontal components (with respect to the projection onto the shape space $B_i(M,N)=\operatorname{Imm}(M,N)/\operatorname{Diff}(M)$ of unparametrized immersions and with respect to the metric $G$). The first splitting can be easily calculated numerically, while the second splitting is important because it mirrors the geometry of shape space and geodesics thereon. Motivated by facilitating the numerical calculation of geodesics on shape space, we characterize all metrics $G$ such that the two splittings coincide. In the special case of planar curves, we show that the regularity of curves in the metric completion can be controlled by choosing a strong enough metric within this class. We demonstrate in several examples that our approach allows us to efficiently calculate numerical solutions of the boundary value problem for geodesics on shape space.