A Hamiltonian Jacobi theory for singular Riemannian metrics (Q689829)

In the classical theory of the calculus of variations the assumption of regularity of the variational integral at hand is of crucial importance. On the other hand many interesting variational problems lack this regularity hypotheses as is e.g. the case for the chain problem, Jacobi- Maupertuis' principle of least action, rotationally symmetric minimal surfaces over products of spheres, curves of minimum moment of inertia. In this paper a Hamilton-Jacobi theory is provided for a suitable class of singular variational problems (including the above examples and more generally singular Finsler-metrics). It is shown that the corresponding eikonal leads to a degenerate field of extremals near a singular point. We also discuss (Caratheodory's) notion of a ``complete figure'' and give necessary conditions which guarantee the strong minimizing property of extremals.