Is there any manifold (probably Riemannian) that has the feature of "path conservation"?

47 Views Asked by At

By the above,I mean that is there a manifold where one can define a functional on a curve such that that curve may be equivalent to many other curves whose individual functionals sum up to that of the original curve? Pls pardon my ignorance....but I've been trying to check if there's a mathematically formal approach to this.Thank u in advance