The topology of the monodromy map of a second order ODE (Q2498846)

For a given potential \(q \in H^0([0, 2 \pi]) = L^2 ([0, 2 \pi])\), consider the homogeneous equation \[ -v^{\prime \prime} (t) + q(t)v(t) = 0, t \in [0, 2 \pi]. \] Let \(\Phi : [0, 2 \pi] \longrightarrow SL(2, I \! R)\) be the fundamental matrix of the equation with \(\Phi(0)\) being the identity matrix. Then \(\Phi (2 \pi) \in SL(2, I \! R)\) gives the Floquet multiplier. The purpose of this article is to study the geometry of the set of potentials \(q\) with given Floquet multiplier. Denote by \(\Pi: G = \widetilde{SL(2, I \! R)} \longrightarrow SL(2, I \! R)\) the universal cover of the group \(SL(2, I \! R)\); \(\tilde \Phi: [0, 2 \pi] \longrightarrow G\) with \(\tilde \Phi (0) = I, \Pi \circ \tilde \Phi = \Phi\) the lifted fundamental matrix; \(\mu:H^0 ([0, 2 \pi]) \longrightarrow G\) with \(\mu (q) = \tilde \Phi (2 \pi)\), the monodramy map (the lifted version of the Floquet multiplier). The authors show that there exists a diffeomorphism \(\Psi : G_0 \times I \! H \longrightarrow H^0 ([0, 2 \pi])\) such that \(\mu \circ \Psi\) is the projection on the first coordinate, where \(G_0\) is an open subset of \(G\) which is diffeomorphisic to \(I \! R^3\), \(I \! H\) is the real infinite-dimensional separable Hilbert space. It follows that the set of potentials \(q\) with given monodromy \(g \in G_0\) is parametrized by \(\Psi (g, h), h \in I \! H\) and is therefore a (topological) subspace of codimension 3. This result is also extended to \(H^p(S^1)\) and \(H^p ([0, 2 \pi])\) for \(p \geq 0\). Since these diffeomorphisms can be constructed explicitly via the Kepler transform, the level sets of \(\mu\) can be realized easier. Applications are given to the theory of periodic Sturm-Liouville operators.