A new kind of Lax-Oleinik type operator with parameters for time-periodic positive definite Lagrangian systems (Q663288)

The Lax-Oleinik semigroup (acting on continuous functions) is one of the central tools in weak KAM theory. In the autonomous context, this semigroup \(T^t, t\in [0,\infty)\), converges as \(t \rightarrow \infty\). This was proved by \textit{A. Fathi} in [C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris, Sér. I, Math. 327, No. 3, 267--270 (1998; Zbl 1052.37514)]. When the Lagrangian under study is one-periodic in time, one has a discrete semigroup \(T^n, n\in N\), but the convergence as \(n\rightarrow \infty\) does not always hold [\textit{A. Fathi} and \textit{J. N. Mather}, Bull. Soc. Math. Fr. 128, No.3, 473-483 (2000; Zbl 0989.37035)]. Some convergence can be recovered by considering the operators \(Y^{N,K}\) defined by \[ Y^{N,K}u:= \min _{N\leq n\leq K} T^nu. \] These operators where introduced by the reviewer [J. Am. Math. Soc. 21, No. 3, 615--669 (2008; Zbl 1213.37089)], where it was observed that \[ \lim _{N\rightarrow \infty}\lim_{ K \rightarrow \infty} Y^{N,K}u=\liminf _{n\rightarrow \infty}T^n u. \] The main result of the paper under review is that actually \[ \lim _{N\rightarrow \infty} Y^{N,2N}u=\liminf _{n\rightarrow \infty}T^n u, \] which is a very strong and remarkable improvement of the above double convergence. The new key ingredients appear in the proof of Proposition 3.5. The authors study some other aspects of the new semigroup \(\tilde T^n:= Y^{n,2n}\), which keeps some important features of the genuine Lax-Oleinik semigroup (in particular, it has the same fixed points, the weak KAM solutions), and adds convergence. They also discuss the speed of convergence of this new semigroup in the autonomous case.