Trajectories in Gödel-type space-times under the action of a vector field (Q1879748)

A semi-Riemmanian manifold \((M,g_L)\) is a Gödel-type Lorentz manifold if \(M=M_0 \times \mathbb R^2\), where \((M_0, g_R)\) is a complete connected Riemannian manifold with metric \(g_R\) and \(g_L=g_R \oplus \alpha (x) \text{d}y^2+2\beta (x) \text{d}y \text{d}t - \gamma (x) \text{d}t^2\) where \(x \in M_0\), the variables \((y,t)\) are the natural coordinates on \(\mathbb R^2\) and \(\alpha, \beta, \gamma\) are scalar fields on \(M_0\) such that \(\beta^2(x) + \alpha(x) \gamma(x)>0\) for all \(x \in M_0\). Let \(A\) be a \(C^1\) vector field \(A : M \rightarrow \text{T}M\), dependent only on \(x \in M_0\). The purpose of this article is to look for curves joining two fixed points of a Gödel-type Lorentz manifold \(M\) or for curves having prescribed period \((Y,T)\) and that satisfy the following system: \(D_s \dot \gamma(s) = {1 \over 2} \text{curl\,}A(\gamma(s))[\cdot , \dot \gamma(s)]\). By a \((Y,T)\)-periodic trajectory the authors mean a geodesic \(z=(x,y,t)\colon [a,b]\to M\) such that \(\big(x(a),\dot x(a)\big)=\big(x(b),\dot x(b)\big)\), \(y(b)=y(a)+T\), \(\dot y(b)=\dot y(a)\) and \(t(b)=t(a)+T\), \(\dot t(b)=\dot t(a)\). The authors prove the existence of such curves under some assumptions on the scalar fields \(\alpha, \beta, \gamma\) and conditions on the Riemanian manifold \(M_0\). Assuming the topology of \(M_0\) is not trivial, they also prove a multiplicity result for time-like solutions of the system given above. The proofs use a variational approach. The system \(D_s \dot \gamma(s) = {1 \over 2} \text{curl\,} A(\gamma(s))[\cdot,\dot\gamma(s)]\) represents the equation of trajectories of relativistic particles under the action of an external force field, and generalizes the geodesic equation, which corresponds to the case \(\text{curl\,}A = 0\).