On the stability of Mañé critical hypersurfaces (Q607801)

Let \(M\) be a closed manifold and \(H:T^*M\rightarrow M\) a smooth Hamiltonian that is strictly fiberwise convex and superlinear. Given a covering of \(M\) there exists an associated Mañé critical value for \(H\); let \(c_u(H)\) the corresponding critical value for the universal cover of \(M\). A hypersurface \(\Sigma _k=H^{-1}(k)\) is called stable if there exists a smooth 1-form \(\lambda \) such that the vectors \(v\neq 0\) tangent to the characteristic foliation of \(\Sigma _k\) annihilate \(d\lambda\) but \(\lambda (v)\neq 0\). The main result of this very interesting paper is the following Theorem. If there is a free homotopy class \(\Gamma\) in \(M\) (including the trivial one) such that there is no closed orbit with energy \(c_u\) whose projection to \(M\) belongs to \(\Gamma\), then the hypersurface \(\Sigma _{c_u}\) is not stable. Moreover, any stable energy level of a Tonnelli Hamiltonian must contain a closed orbit. There are examples of Tonnelli Hamiltonians on \(\mathbb T^n\) (\(n\geq 2\)) such that \(\Sigma _c\) is stable.