Morse index theorem of Lagrangian systems and stability of brake orbit (Q2297206)

The paper is focused on the Morse index theory of a Lagrangian system with general boundary conditions. More precisely, let \(\mathcal{F}(x)=\int _0^TL(t, x, \dot{x})dt,\) where \(x\in W^{1, 2}([0, T], \mathbb{R}^n)\) and \(L\in C^2([0, T]\oplus \mathbb{R}^n, \mathbb{R})\) satisfying a Legendre convexity condition. The linearization of the corresponding Euler-Lagrange equation gives a Sturm-Liouville self-adjoint operator \(\mathcal{A}\). For a critical point \(x\) of \(\mathcal{F}\) its Morse index is \(m^{-}(\mathcal{A})\), which corresponds to the number of negative eigenvalues of \(\mathcal{A}\). The first main result, namely Theorem 1.1, gives an estimate for the difference of two Morse indices. As an application, Theorem 4.5 states that for a minimizer brake orbit all eigenvalues of the monodromy matrix are real and positive.