Conjugate time in the sub-Riemannian problem on the Cartan group (Q2240786)

The author investigates the Cartan group, which is the free nilpotent Lie group of rank 2 and step 3 and considers the left-invariant sub-Riemannian problem on the Cartan group defined by an inner product in the first layer of its Lie algebra. This problem gives a nilpotent approximation of an arbitrary sub-Riemannian problem with the growth vector (2, 3, 5). In previous works, the author described a group of symmetries of the sub-Riemannian problem on the Cartan group, and the corresponding Maxwell time -- the first time when symmetric geodesics intersect one another. It is known that geodesics are not globally optimal after the Maxwell time. In this work, the author studies local optimality of geodesics on the Cartan group. He proves that the first conjugate time along a geodesic is not less than the Maxwell time corresponding to the group of symmetries. The author also characterizes geodesics for which the first conjugate time is equal to the first Maxwell time. Moreover, he describes continuity of the first conjugate time near infinite values.