Abstracts

Minimizing Measures for time dependent Lagrangians
We extend Mather's Theory of minimizing measures for "compact" time dependent Lagrangians.

Lagrangian Flows: The Dynamics of Globally Minimizing Orbits II.
We prove most of the Theorems of
Ricardo Mañé's unfinished work
Lagrangian Flows: The Dynamics of Globally Minimizing Orbits.

On the creation of conjugate points for Hamiltonian systems
For a fixed Hamiltonian H on the cotangent bundle of a compact manifold M and a fixed energy level e, we prove that the set of potentials on M such that the Hamiltonian flow of H plus the potential is Anosov, is the interior in the C^2 topology of the set of potentials such that the flow has no conjugate points.

Lagrangian Graphs, Minimizing Measures and Mañé's Critical Values
Let L be a convex superlinear Lagrangian on a closed connected manifold M. We consider critical values of Lagrangians as defined by R. Mañé. We show that the critical value of the lift of L to a covering of M equals the infimum of the values of k such that the energy level k bounds an exact Lagrangian graph in the cotangent bundle of the covering. As a consequence we show that up to reparametrization, the dynamics of the Euler-Lagrange flow of L on an energy level that contains minimizing measures with nonzero homology can be reduced to Finsler metrics. We also show that if the Euler-Lagrange flow of L on the energy level k is Anosov, then k must be strictly bigger than the critical value c_u(L) of the lift of L to the universal covering of M. It follows that given k less than c_u(L), there exists a potential g with arbitrarily small C^2-norm such that the energy level k of L+g possesses conjugate points. Finally we show the existence of weak KAM solutions for coveringsof M and explain the relationship between Fathi's results and Mañé's Critical Values and action potentials.

Convex Hamiltonians without conjugate points
We generalize some of results of the theory of geodesics whithout conjugate points: existence of Green bundles, hiperbolicity from the transversality of these bundles and an index form. We use these tools to proof that for generic Lagrangians, minimizing measures supported in periodic orbits or critical points are hyperbolic. Theorem stated by
Ricardo Mañé in his unfinished work. We also derive a formula for the metric entropy.

Average Linking Numbers
We prove that it is possible to define the average linking number (Hopf invariant) for every pair of invariant measures which dont have a common periodic orbit of positive measure.
dvi file and ps file available.

Finsler Metrics and Action Potentials
We study the behavior of Mañé's action potential $\Phi_k$ associated to a convex superlinear Lagrangian, for $k$ bigger than the critical value $c(L)$ . We obtain growth estimates of the action potential as function of $k$. We prove that the action potential can be written as $\Phi_k(x,y)=D_F(x,y)+f(y)-f(x)$ where $f$ is a smooth function and $D_F$ is the distance function associated to a Finsler metric.
dvi file available.

The Palais Smale condition and Mañé's Critical Values
Let L be a convex superlinear autonomous Lagrangian on a closed connected manifold N. We consider critical values of Lagrangians as defined by R.Mañé . We define energy levels satisfying the Palais-Smale condition and we show that the critical value of the lift of L to any covering of N equals the infimum of the values of k such that the energy level t satisfies the Palais-Smale condition for every t>k provided that the Peierls barrier is finite. When the static set is not empty, the Peierls barrier is always finite and thus we obtain a characterization of the critical value of L in terms of the Palais-Smale condition.

We also show that if an energy level without conjugate points satisfies the Palais-Smale condition, then then two different points in the universal covering can be joined by a unique solution of the Euler-Lagrange equation that lives in the given energy level. If an energy level without conjugate points has energy bigger than c_u(L) (the critical value of the lift of L to the universal covering of N), then two different points in the universal covering can be joined by a unique solution of the Euler-Lagrange equation that lives in the given energy level. Conversely, if the latter property holds, then the energy of the energy level is greater than or equal to c_u(L). In this way, we obtain a characterization of the energy levels where an analogue of the Hadamard theorem holds. We conclude the paper showing other applications such as the existence of minimizing periodic orbits in every homotopy class with energy greater than c_u(L) and homologically trivial periodic orbits such that the action of L+k is negative if c_u(L) dvi file Available.

A Minimax Selector for a Class Of Hamiltonians on a Cotangent Bundle
We construct a minimax selector for eventually quadratic hamiltonians on cotangent bundles. We use it to give a relation between Hofer's energy and Mather's action minimizing function. We also study the local flatness of the set of twist maps.
dvi file available.

A Geometric proof of the existence of the Green Bundles
We give a new proof of the existence of the Green Bundles.
dvi file available.

Topological Shocks in Burgers Turbulence.
The dynamics of the multidimensional randomly forced Burgers equation is studied in the limit of vanishing viscosity. It is shown both theoretically and numerically that the shocks have a universal global structure which is determined by the topology of the configuration space. This structure is shown to be particularly rigid for the case of periodic boundary conditions.

The Asymptotic Maslov index and its Applications.
Let N be a 2n-dimensional manifold equipped with a symplectic structurew and G(N)$ be the Lagrangian Grassmann bundle over N. Consider a flow t^t on N that preserves the symplectic structure and a f^t-invariant connected submanifold S. When there exists a continuous section S->G(N), we can associate to any finite, f^t-invariant measure with support in S, a quantity: The Asymptotic Maslov Index, that describes the way Lagrangian planes are asymptotically wrapped in average around the Lagrangian Grassmann bundle. A particular attention is paid to the case when the flow is derived from an optical Hamiltonian and when the invariant measure is the Liouville measure on compact energy levels. The situation when the energy levels are not compact is discussed in an appendix.
dvi file available.

Weak solutions of the Hamilton Jacobi equation for periodic Lagrangians
In this work we generalize to periodic Lagrangians several results -originally stated for autonomous Lagrangians- including the existence of a Ma\~n\'e's critical value , its characterization in terms of smooth subsolutions of the Hamilton Jacobi equation as in
Lagrangian graphs... , and the existence of Fathi's weak KAM solutions. dvi file available.

Burgers Turbulence and Random Lagrangian Systems
We consider spatially periodic inviscid random forced Burgers equation in arbitrary dimension and the random time-dependent Lagrangian system related to it. We construct a unique stationary distribution for ``viscosity" solutions of burgers equation. We also show that with probability 1 there exists a unique minimizing trajectory for the random Lagrangian system. These minimizing trajectories generate a unique minimizing measure for the non-random skew-product extension of the Lagrangian system.
dvi file available.

Modificado el: Mon Jul 8 18:06:18 2002, por: Renato Iturriaga