Motions of gyroscopic systems and Lorentzian geometry (Q1317583)

Some mechanical systems containing gyroscopic forces are considered. It is studied the problem of connecting two arbitrary points under the action of such system. The problem is reduced to study the existence of geodesics joining two points for a Riemannian or Lorentzian metric. In particular, the Lorentzian metric obtained is stationary. By using classical methods in calculus of variations, it is proved the existence of a geodesic joining two points for such metric and, under nondegeneration assumptions, it is proved that the number of ``minimal'' geodesics is finite. Such results should be compared with analogous results on the existence and multiplicity of geodesics joining two points of a Lorentzian manifold, obtained by many authors.