  In dissipative ordinary differential equation systems different time scales
cause anisotropic phase volume contraction along solution trajectories. Model
reduction methods exploit this for simplifying chemical kinetics via a time
scale separation into fast and slow modes. The aim is to approximate the system
dynamics with a dimension-reduced model after eliminating the fast modes by
enslaving them to the slow ones via computation of a slow attracting manifold.
We present a novel method for computing approximations of such manifolds using
trajectory-based optimization. We discuss Riemannian geometry concepts as a
basis for suitable optimization criteria characterizing trajectories near slow
attracting manifolds and thus provide insight into fundamental geometric
properties of multiple time scale chemical kinetics. The optimization criteria
correspond to a suitable mathematical formulation of "minimal relaxation" of
chemical forces along reaction trajectories under given constraints. We present
various geometrically motivated criteria and the results of their application
to three test case reaction mechanisms serving as examples. We demonstrate that
accurate numerical approximations of slow invariant manifolds can be obtained.
