Chengbo Li — Page 2

arXiv2009

Jacobi Equations and Comparison Theorems for Corank 1 sub-Riemannian Structures with Symmetries

The Jacobi curve of an extremal of optimal control problem is a curve in a Lagrangian Grassmannian defined up to a symplectic transformation and containing all information about the solutions of the Jacobi equations along this extremal. In our previous works we constructed the canonical bundle of moving frames and the complete system of symplectic invariants, called curvature maps, for parametrized curves in Lagrange Grassmannians satisfying very general assumptions. The structural equation for a canonical moving frame of the Jacobi curve of an extremal can be interpreted as the normal form for the Jacobi equation along this extremal and the curvature maps can be seen as the "coefficients" of this normal form. In the case of a Riemannian metric there is only one curvature map and it is naturally related to the Riemannian sectional curvature. In the present paper we study the curvature maps for a sub-Riemannian structure on a corank 1 distribution having an additional transversal infinitesimal symmetry. After the factorization by the integral foliation of this symmetry, such sub-Riemannian structure can be reduced to a Riemannian manifold equipped with a closed 2-form (a magnetic field). We obtain explicit expressions for the curvature maps of the original sub-Riemannian structure in terms of the curvature tensor of this Riemannian manifold and the magnetic field. We also estimate the number of conjugate points along the sub-Riemannian extremals in terms of the bounds for the curvature tensor of this Riemannian manifold and the magnetic field in the case of an uniform magnetic field. The language developed for the calculation of the curvature maps can be applied to more general sub-Riemannian structures with symmetries, including sub-Riemmannian structures appearing naturally in Yang-Mills fields.

math.DG↗

arXiv2007

Differential geometry of curves in Lagrange Grassmannians with given Young diagram

Curves in Lagrange Grassmannians appear naturally in the intrinsic study of geometric structures on manifolds. By a smooth geometric structure on a manifold we mean any submanifold of its tangent bundle, transversal to the fibers. One can consider the time-optimal problem naturally associate with a geometric structure. The Pontryagin extremals of this optimal problem are integral curves of certain Hamiltonian system in the cotangent bundle. The dynamics of the fibers of the cotangent bundle w.r.t. this system along an extremal is described by certain curve in a Lagrange Grassmannian, called Jacobi curve of the extremal. Any symplectic invariant of the Jacobi curves produces the invariant of the original geometric structure. The basic characteristic of a curve in a Lagrange Grassmannian is its Young diagram. The number of boxes in its kth column is equal to the rank of the kth derivative of the curve (which is an appropriately defined linear mapping) at a generic point. We will describe the construction of the complete system of symplectic invariants for parameterized curves in a Lagrange Grassmannian with given Young diagram. It allows to develop in a unified way local differential geometry of very wide classes of geometric structures on manifolds, including both classical geometric structures such as Riemannian and Finslerian structures and less classical ones such as sub-Riemannian and sub-Finslerian structures, defined on nonholonomic distributions.

math.DG↗