Quadratic sufficient minimality conditions for abnormal sub-Riemannian geodesics (Q5948388)

Related to the problem of curves of minimal length in sub-Riemannian metrics, the author considers here trajectories that are subject to (are tangent to) some distribution on which some submetric, particularly a sub-Riemannian metric, is given. The main results of the paper are the following: Main Theorem 1. If a trajectory is quadratically rigid, then it yields a strong minimum of the distance between two given points in any strictly convex submetric (although this trajectory can become a nonsingular one). Main Theorem 2. If, in some basis, a trajectory is quadratically rigid in the Pontryagin sense, then, in any submetric from the sheaf corresponding to this basis, it yields the minimum of the distance between two given points with respect to the \(W_{1,1}\)-norm, i.e., with respect to the \(L_1\)-norm in the velocities. These theorems were announced by the author in the paper Russ. J. Math. Phys. 6, 363-372 (1999; Zbl 1059.53501) and they generalize and strengthen the sufficient minimality conditions from the following papers: \textit{A. A. Agrachev} and \textit{A. V. Sarychev}, J. Dyn. Control Syst. 1, 139-176 (1995; Zbl 0951.53029); \textit{W. Liu} and \textit{H. J. Sussmann}, Mem. Am. Math. Soc. 564 (1995; Zbl 0843.53038); \textit{R. Montgomery}, SIAM J. Control Optim. 32, 1605-1620 (1994; Zbl 0816.49019); J. Dyn. Control Syst. 1, 49-90 (1995; Zbl 0941.53021); \textit{N. N. Petrov}, Differ. Uravn. 30, 768-775 (1994; Zbl 0844.53033).