Gradient flows, second order gradient systems and convexity

Abstract

We disclose an interesting connection between the gradient flow of a $\mathcal{C}^2$-smooth function $\psi$ and evanescent orbits of the second order gradient system defined by the square-norm of $\nabla\psi$, under adequate convexity assumption. As a consequence, we obtain the following surprising result for two $\mathcal{C}^2$, convex and bounded from below functions $\psi_1$, $\psi_2$: if $||\nabla\psi_1||=||\nabla\psi_2||$, then $\psi_1=\psi_2 + k$, for some $k\in \mathbb{R}$.