Flat metrics are strict local minimizers for the polynomial entropy (Q1941918)

The author considers the geodesic flow of a Riemannian metric on the two torus which is a \(C^5\) perturbation of the flat metric and satisfies the following additional properties: it possesses a first integral which is non degenerate in Bott sense and dynamically coherent. The main result proven in the article is that, either the metric is flat or it contains a periodic hyperbolic orbit. The ``non degeneracy'' of the first integral means that the critical points of its restriction to the energy level (unit co-tangent bundle) are smooth submanifolds. It follows from the work of \textit{A. T. Fomenko} [Integrability and nonintegrability in geometry and mechanics. Transl. from the Russian by M. V. Tsaplina. Dordrecht etc.: Kluwer Academic Publishers (1988; Zbl 0675.58018)] that in this case, the possible critical submanifolds are circles, tori, and Klein bottles. If the critical circles are non-degenerate periodic orbits (elliptic or hyperbolic), then the system is called ``dynamically coherent''. One of the consequences of the theorem is that if the metric is not flat, then its polynomial entropy is greater than the polynomial entropy of the geodesic flow of the flat metric. In other words, following previous work by the author [Nonlinearity 25, No. 11, 3049--3069 (2012; Zbl 1286.37021)], the flat metrics are local strict minima for the polynomial entropy. The main result follows from the classification of critical submanifolds, the proof of existence of invariant Lagrangian graphs and the analysis of how the action-angle domains decompose the level set.