Flow lines and algebraic invariants in contact form geometry (Q1416847)

This monograph is related to two previous ones of the author [\textit{A. Bahri}, Pseudo-orbits of contact forms. Pitman Research Notes in Mathematics Series, 173. Harlow (UK): Longman Scientific \& Technical; New York: Wiley (1988; Zbl 0677.58002) and Classical and quantic periodic motions of multiply polarized spin-particles. Pitman Research Notes in Mathematics Series. 378. Harlow: Longman (1998; Zbl 0891.58004)]. The direction of research in these monographs is an attempt to create a new tool for the study of one or several aspects of the dynamics of a contact structure and a contact vector field. On a smooth three-dimensional compact manifold \(M\), a contact form is a 1-form \(\alpha\) such that \(\alpha \wedge d\alpha\) is a volume form for the manifold \(M\). To any contact form \(\alpha\) is associated a vector field \(\xi\), the contact vector field associated to \(\alpha\). The search of periodic orbits of the vector field \(\xi\) is the so-called Weinstein problem. Many people have worked on the Weinstein problem as A. Weinstein, P. Rabinowitz and H. Hofer. Assume that the subbundle of the tangent bundle \(TM\) defined by \(\ker\alpha\) is trivializable, let \(v\) a smooth and nonsingular vector field \(v\) in \(\ker\alpha\) and consider the one differential form \(\beta = d\alpha(v,\cdot)\). The problem of finding the periodic orbits of \(\xi\) is variational in nature. Indeed such orbits are the critical points of the functionals \(J\) and \(\widetilde{J}\) defined as \[ J(x) = \int_0^1 \alpha_x(\dot x)\,dt, \quad \widetilde{J}(x) = \int_0^1 \alpha_x(\dot x)^2\,dt, \] on the infinite-dimensional Sobolev manifold \(H^1(S^1,M)\) of closed curves on \(M\). Unfortunately this variational problem has a noncompact behaviour. Indeed the gradient of the functional is not Fredholm, the lines of the gradient flow are not compact and the Morse index of any critical point is equal to \(+\infty\). For these reasons some constraints on the manifold of admissible curves are introduced and the variational problem is reduced to the study of critical points of the functionals \(J\) and \(\widetilde{J}\) restricted on such constraints. In particular, the following constraints are introduced. \[ \begin{aligned} {\mathcal L}_\beta &= \{ x \in H^1(S^1,M): \beta_x(\dot x) = 0\}\\ \text{and} C_\beta &= \{x \in {\mathcal L}_\beta: \alpha_x(\dot x) = \text{constant} > 0 \}. \end{aligned} \] Then the problem to find the periodic orbits of \(\xi\) is analyzed studying the variational properties of the functionals \(J\) and \(\widetilde{J}\) on these constraints. In particular the critical points of \(\widetilde{J}\) on \({\mathcal L}_\beta\) with positive critical value are periodic orbits of \(\xi\) and now they have finite Morse index. In this book much attention is paid on the behaviour of \(\widetilde{J}\) on the second constraint \(C_\beta\). The book is divided in five parts. Part I is devoted to recalling the results of the second monograph of the author, the variational problem and to stating the deformation results. Moreover, new definitions are introduced as the cones associated to a critical point at infinity. The non-Fredholm nature of the variational problem is described. Part I ends with the description of the critical points at infinity and their cones. In Part II a pseudogradient vector field \(Z_0\) for \(\widetilde{J}\) on \( C_\beta\) is introduced and its flow lines are studied. Part III is devoted to study the Poincaré-return map of true critical points at infinity. Many nontrivial properties of these critical points are deeply analyzed. Finally in Part IV and Part V the assumptions needed to obtain the results are discussed and sometimes it is explained how to remove some of them. In conclusion this book presents many new results and new ideas on a topic which is at the frontiers of modern calculus of variations and differential geometry, in particular in the class of geometric problems without compactness.