Lagrangian systems on hyperbolic manifolds (Q3836409)

The authors investigate time dependent Lagrangian dynamical systems on the tangent bundle \(TM\) of a closed hyperbolic manifold \(M\). These systems are required to be defined by a \(C^2\)-function \(L: TM\times S^1\to \mathbb{R}\) which is fibrewise strictly convex and superquadratic with respect to the hyperbolic norm on the fibres. It is also supposed that the Euler-Lagrange flow of \(L\) exists for all times. If \(L\) is such a function, then for any numbers \(a<b\) and distinct points \(x\), \(y\) in the universal cover \(\widetilde{M}\) of \(M\) one can find a curve \(\gamma: [a,b]\to \widetilde{M}\) with \(\gamma(a)= x\), \(\gamma(b)= y\) that minimizes the action of \(L\) among all curves on \([a,b]\) with the same endpoints. These minimizer define a subset \(\mu\subset TM\times S^1\). The authors show that this set \(\mu\) contains an infinite union of compact subsets \(X_i\) which are invariant under the Euler-Lagrange flow \(\Phi_t\) and such that \((X_i, \Phi_t)\) is semiconjugate to the geodesic flow \(g_t\) on \(M\). Moreover the lift to \(\widetilde {M}\) of a curve defined by an orbit in \(X_i\) is a \(k_i\)-quasigeodesic where \(k_i> 0\) tends to infinity with \(i\).