The sub-Riemannian geometry of screw motions with constant pitch

Abstract: We consider a family of Riemannian manifolds M such that for each unit speed geodesic gamma of M there exists a distinguished bijective correspondence L between infinitesimal translations along gamma and infinitesimal rotations around it. The simplest examples are R^3, S^3 and hyperbolic 3-space, with L defined in terms of the cross product. More generally, M is a connected compact semisimple Lie group, or its non-compact dual, or Euclidean space acted on transitively by some group which is contained properly in the full group of rigid motions. Let G be the identity component of the isometry group of M. A curve in G may be thought of as a motion of a body in M. Given lambda in R, we define a left invariant distribution on G accounting for infinitesimal roto-translations of M of pitch lambda. We give conditions for the controllability of the associated control system on G and find explicitly all the geodesics of the natural sub-Riemannian structure. We also study a similar system on R^7 rtimes SO(7) involving the octonionic cross product. In an appendix we give a friendly presentation of the non-compact dual of a compact classical group, as a set of "small rotations".