Collective geodesic flows. (Q1864246)

Consider a Lie group \(K\), with Lie algebra \(k\), acting on a manifold \(M\), and then an \(T^*M\) by the so-called ``moment map'' \(\psi: M\to k^*\), defined by: \(\psi(n,r)(\xi)= \tau(\xi(m))\); where \(\xi(m)\) is the vector at \(m\in M\) induced by \(\zeta\in k\). The authors deal with the Hamiltonian flows generated by Hamiltonians having the form \(f\circ\psi\) for some quadratic form \(f\). This is what they call ``collective geodesic flow''. In the case of transitive action and of definite form \(f\), this is indeed a Riemannian geodesic flow. The authors focus firstly on the Hamiltonian flow of \(f\) on \(k^*\), when \(k= k_1\oplus k_2\), each \(k_i\) being a real subalgebra of \(\text{sl}(2,\mathbb{C})\), isomorphic to \(\text{so}(3)\) or \(\text{sl}(2)\). They give in this framework sufficient conditions ensuring that a ``collective geodesic flow'' has a positive topological entropy. The authors study then the existence of embeddings of a Lie algebra of the preceding type into a real semi-simple Lie algebra, and deduce that most real semi-simple Lie algebras admit a quadratic Hamiltonian having a flow with positive topological entropy. Finally, a further analysis leads to a list of homogeneous spaces admitting a geodesic flow having positive topological entropy.