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Andrei Agrachev

Publications and source records attributed to Andrei Agrachev.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2017

Intrinsic random walks in Riemannian and sub-Riemannian geometry via volume sampling

We relate some basic constructions of stochastic analysis to differential geometry, via random walk approximations. We consider walks on both Riemannian and sub-Riemannian manifolds in which the steps consist of travel along either geodesics or integral curves associated to orthonormal frames, and we give particular attention to walks where the choice of step is influenced by a volume on the manifold. A primary motivation is to explore how one can pass, in the parabolic scaling limit, from geodesics, orthonormal frames, and/or volumes to diffusions, and hence their infinitesimal generators, on sub-Riemannian manifolds, which is interesting in light of the fact that there is no completely canonical notion of sub-Laplacian on a general sub-Riemannian manifold. However, even in the Riemannian case, this random walk approach illuminates the geometric significance of Ito and Stratonovich stochastic differential equations as well as the role played by the volume.

math.DG↗
arXiv2016

Sub-Riemannian curvature in contact geometry

We compare different notions of curvature on contact sub-Riemannian manifolds. In particular we introduce canonical curvatures as the coefficients of the sub-Riemannian Jacobi equation. The main result is that all these coefficients are encoded in the asymptotic expansion of the horizontal derivatives of the sub-Riemannian distance. We explicitly compute their expressions in terms of the standard tensors of contact geometry. As an application of these results, we obtain a sub-Riemannian version of the Bonnet-Myers theorem that applies to any contact manifold.

math.DG↗
arXiv2015

Curvature: a variational approach

The curvature discussed in this paper is a rather far going generalization of the Riemannian sectional curvature. We define it for a wide class of optimal control problems: a unified framework including geometric structures such as Riemannian, sub-Riemannian, Finsler and sub-Finsler structures; a special attention is paid to the sub-Riemannian (or Carnot-Caratheodory) metric spaces. Our construction of the curvature is direct and naive, and it is similar to the original approach of Riemann. Surprisingly, it works in a very general setting and, in particular, for all sub-Riemannian spaces.

math.DG↗
arXiv2014

Quadratic cohomology

We study homological invariants of smooth families of real quadratic forms as a step towards a "Lagrange multipliers rule in the large" that intends to describe topology of smooth maps in terms of scalar Lagrange functions.

math.AT↗
arXiv2014

On conjugate times of LQ optimal control problems

Motivated by the study of linear quadratic optimal control problems, we consider a dynamical system with a constant, quadratic Hamiltonian, and we characterize the number of conjugate times in terms of the spectrum of the Hamiltonian vector field $\vec{H}$. We prove the following dichotomy: the number of conjugate times is identically zero or grows to infinity. The latter case occurs if and only if $\vec{H}$ has at least one Jordan block of odd dimension corresponding to a purely imaginary eigenvalue. As a byproduct, we obtain bounds from below on the number of conjugate times contained in an interval in terms of the spectrum of $\vec{H}$.

math.OC↗
arXiv2013

Some open problems

We discuss some challenging open problems in the geometric control theory and sub-Riemannian geometry.

math.OC↗
arXiv2011

On the Space of Symmetric Operators with Multiple Ground States

We study homological structure of the filtrations of the spaces of self-adjoint operators by the multiplicity of the ground state. We consider only operators acting in a finite dimensional complex or real Hilbert space but infinite dimensional generalizations are easily guessed.

math.AT↗
arXiv2011

On the Hausdorff volume in sub-Riemannian geometry

For a regular sub-Riemannian manifold we study the Radon-Nikodym derivative of the spherical Hausdorff measure with respect to a smooth volume. We prove that this is the volume of the unit ball in the nilpotent approximation and it is always a continuous function. We then prove that up to dimension 4 it is smooth, while starting from dimension 5, in corank 1 case, it is C^3 (and C^4 on every smooth curve) but in general not C^5. These results answer to a question addressed by Montgomery about the relation between two intrinsic volumes that can be defined in a sub-Riemannian manifold, namely the Popp and the Hausdorff volume. If the nilpotent approximation depends on the point (that may happen starting from dimension 5), then they are not proportional, in general.

math.DG↗
arXiv2010

Systems of Quadratic Inequalities

We present a spectral sequence which efficiently computes Betti numbers of a closed semi-algebraic subset of RP^n defined by a system of quadratic inequalities and the image of the homology homomorphism induced by the inclusion of this subset in RP^n. We do not restrict ourselves to the term E_2 of the spectral sequence and give a simple explicit formula for the differential d_2.

math.AG↗
arXiv2009

Well-posed infinite horizon variational problems on a compact manifold

We give an effective sufficient condition for a variational problem with infinite horizon on a compact Riemannian manifold M to admit a smooth optimal synthesis, i. e. a smooth dynamical system on M whose positive semi-trajectories are solutions to the problem. To realize the synthesis we construct a well-projected to M invariant Lagrange submanifold of the extremals' flow in the cotangent bundle T*M. The construction uses the curvature of the flow in the cotangent bundle and some ideas of hyperbolic dynamics.

math.OC↗
arXiv2009

Two-Dimensional Almost-Riemannian Structures with Tangency Points

Two-dimensional almost-Riemannian structures are generalized Riemannian structures on surfaces for which a local orthonormal frame is given by a Lie bracket generating pair of vector fields that can become collinear. We study the relation between the topological invariants of an almost-Riemannian structure on a compact oriented surface and the rank-two vector bundle over the surface which defines the structure. We analyse the generic case including the presence of tangency points, i.e. points where two generators of the distribution and their Lie bracket are linearly dependent. The main result of the paper provides a classification of oriented almost-Riemannian structures on compact oriented surfaces in terms of the Euler number of the vector bundle corresponding to the structure. Moreover, we present a Gauss?Bonnet formula for almost-Riemannian structures with tangency points.

math.DG↗
arXiv2008

The intrinsic hypoelliptic Laplacian and its heat kernel on unimodular Lie groups

We present an invariant definition of the hypoelliptic Laplacian on sub-Riemannian structures with constant growth vector, using the Popp's volume form introduced by Montgomery. This definition generalizes the one of the Laplace-Beltrami operator in Riemannian geometry. In the case of left-invariant problems on unimodular Lie groups we prove that it coincides with the usual sum of squares. We then extend a method (first used by Hulanicki on the Heisenberg group) to compute explicitly the kernel of the hypoelliptic heat equation on any unimodular Lie group of type I. The main tool is the noncommutative Fourier transform. We then study some relevant cases: SU(2), SO(3), SL(2) (with the metrics inherited by the Killing form), and the group SE(2) of rototranslations of the plane. Our study is motivated by some recent results about the cut and conjugate loci on these sub-Riemannian manifolds. The perspective is to understand how singularities of the sub-Riemannian distance reflect on the kernel of the corresponding hypoelliptic heat equation.

math.AP↗
arXiv2008

Any sub-Riemannian Metric has Points of Smoothness

We prove the result stated in the title; it is equivalent to the existence of a regular point of the sub-Riemannian exponential mapping. We also prove that the metric is analytic on an open everywhere dense subset in the case of a complete real-analytic sub-Riemannian manifold.

math.DG↗
arXiv2007

Optimal Transportation under Nonholonomic Constraints

We study Monge's optimal transportation problem, where the cost is given by optimal control cost. We prove the existence and uniqueness of an optimal map under certain regularity conditions on the Lagrangian, absolute continuity of the measures with respect to Lebesgue, and most importantly the absence of sharp abnormal minimizers. In particular, this result is applicable in the case of subriemannian manifolds with a 2-generating distribution and cost given by $d^2$, where $d$ is the subriemannian distance. Also, we discuss some properties of the optimal plan when abnormal minimizers are present. Finally, we consider some examples of displacement interpolation in the case of Grushin plane.

math.OC↗