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The fields on the Heisenberg group that gives it its sub-Riemannian and metric structure is given by 
These are declared orthonormal, and only lines whose velocities are given by have a (finite) speed. One may view this setup as a degenerate Riemannian structure, where a third vector field (say, ) has degenerated as s was sent to zero. The Riemannian approximation I find natural interpolates between Euclidean and Heisenberg geometries, and has not yet been explored. Here are the frame fields:
At s=0, this is the standard Euclidean frame field, and at s=1 it degenerates to the Heisenberg structure. In between, it gives Riemannian structures on with properties that degenerate as s goes to 1. As with any Riemannian structure, geodesics through a given point with assigned direction exist and are unique. They can be found by solving the geodesic equation
for the Levi-Civita connection corresponding to the orthonormal frame field. Given a curve and some calculations, the condition on becomes:
^2 y\prime \prime - s x\prime ( z\prime + \frac{s}{2}( x\prime y - y\prime x) )=0)
 )\prime =0) These equations are easily solved. The following animations show, as s changes, geodesics leaving the origin with fixed initial velocity. The length of the geodesics changes with s since otherwise they quickly become too small to see. |