In this paper we discuss asymmetric metric spaces (that is, quasi-metric spaces) in an abstract setting, mimicking the usual theory of metric spaces, but adding ideas derived from Finsler geometry. As a typical application, we consider asymmetric metric spaces generated by functionals in Calculus of Variation.

The notion of nonpositive curvature in Alexandrov’s sense is extended to include p-uniformly convex Banach spaces. Infinite dimensional manifolds of semi-negative curvature with a p-uniformly convex tangent norm fall in this class on nonpositively curved spaces, and several well-known results, such as existence and uniqueness of best approximations from convex closed sets, or the Bruhat-Tits fixed point theorem, are shown to hold in this setting, without dimension restrictions. Homogeneous spaces G/K of Banach-Lie groups of seminegative curvature are also studied, explicit estimates on the geodesic distance and sectional curvature are obtained. A characterization of convex homogeneous submanifolds is given in terms of the Banach-Lie algebras. A splitting theorem via convex expansive submanifolds is proven, inducing the corresponding splitting of the Banach-Lie group G. Finally, these notions are used to study the structure of the classical Banach-Lie groups of bounded linear operators acting on a Hilbert space, and the splittings induced by conditional expectations in such setting. 1 1