arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Miguel Paternain.
We show that there is a topology on certain groups of loops in Euclidean space such that these groups are embedded in a Fr\'echet-Lie group which is the structural group of a principal bundle with connection whose holonomy coincides with the Chen signature map. We also give an alternative geometric new proof of the Chen signature theorem and a generalization of this theorem in classes strictly containing the one originally considered by Chen.
Consider a mechanical system with a real analytic potential. We prove that in dimension three, there is an open and dense subset of the set of non strict local minimums of the potential such that every one of its points is a Lyapunov unstable equilibrium point.
W. Goldman and V. Turaev defined a Lie bialgebra structure on the $\mathbb Z$-module generated by free homotopy classes of loops of an oriented surface (i.e. the conjugacy classes of its fundamental group). We develop a generalization of this construction replacing homotopies by thin homotopies, based on the combinatorial approach given by M. Chas. We use it to give a geometric proof of a characterization of simple curves in terms of the Goldman-Turaev bracket, which was conjectured by Chas.
We prove Lyapunov instability for cases in which the local minimum of the potential energy is reached on a hypersurface of the configuration space. In contrast to the known results in this direction, which hold for potentials satisfying hypotheses in the first non-zero jet, this new result covers several real analytic cases that the previous ones do not.
The Geroch group is an infinite dimensional transitive group of symmetries of classical cylindrically symmetric gravitational waves which acts by non-canonical transformations on the phase space of these waves. Here this symmetry is rederived and the unique Poisson bracket on the Geroch group which makes its action on the gravitational phase space Lie-Poisson is obtained. Two possible notions of asymptotic flatness are proposed that are compatible with the Poisson bracket on the phase space, and corresponding asymptotic flatness preserving subgroups of the Geroch group are defined which turn out to be compatible with the Poisson bracket on the group. A quantization of the Geroch group is proposed that is similar to, but distinct from, the $\mathfrak{sl}_2$ Yangian, and a certain action of this quantum Geroch group on gravitational observables is shown to preserve the commutation relations of Korotkin and Samtleben's quantization of asymptotically flat cylindrically symmetric gravitational waves. The action also preserves three of the additional conditions that define their quantization. It is conjectured that the action preserves the remaining two conditions (asymptotic flatness and a unit determinant condition on a certain basic field) as well and is, in fact, a symmetry of their model. Our results on the quantum theory are formal, but a possible rigorous formulation based on algebraic quantum theory is outlined.
We study the cohomological equation for a smooth vector field on a compact manifold. We show that if the vector field is cohomology free, then it can be embedded continuously in a linear flow on an Abelian group.
A homeomorphism of a compact metric space is {\em tight} provided every non-degenerate compact connected (not necessarily invariant) subset carries positive entropy. It is shown that every $C^{1+α}$ diffeomorphism of a closed surface factors to a tight homeomorphism of a generalized cactoid (roughly, a surface with nodes) by a semi-conjugacy whose fibers carry zero entropy.