Lagrangian graphs, minimizing measures and Mañé's critical values (Q1271399)

The authors consider a convex superlinear Lagrangian \({L}\) defined on the tangent bundle of a closed connected smooth manifold. They consider the critical values of the Lagrangian as defined in a previous paper by Mañé and show that the critical value of the lift of \(L\) to a covering of the manifold equals the infimum of the values of \(k\) such that the energy level \(k\) bounds an exact Lagrangian graph in the cotangent bundle of the covering. As a consequence, it is shown that up to a reparametrization, the dynamics of the Euler-Lagrange flow of \({L}\) on an energy level that contains supports of minimizing measures with nonzero rotation vector can be reduced to Finsler metrics. It is also shown that if the Euler-Lagrange flow of \({L}\) on the energy level \(k\) is Anosov, then \(k\) must be strictly bigger than the critical value of the lift of \({L}\) to the universal covering of the manifold. By this result it follows that there exists a potential \(\psi\) with arbitrarily small \(C^2\)-norm such that the energy level \(k\) of \({L}+\psi\) possesses conjugate points. Finally, it is proved the existence of weak KAM solutions for coverings of the manifolds.