Asymptotic behaviour of self-contracted planar curves and gradient orbits of convex functions (Q987849)

The article deals with analytical characteristics of trajectories \(\gamma\) of the gradient system \[ \dot\gamma = -\nabla f(\gamma), \] where \(f: \;{\mathbb R}^2 \to {\mathbb R}\) is a smooth convex (or quasiconvex) function which admits a minimum. The authors prove that the trajectories of this system have a finite length; moreover, if \(\gamma: \;I \to {\mathbb R}^2\) satisfies the additional condition \[ \text{dist} \, (\gamma(t_1),\gamma(t_3)) \geq \text{dist} \, (\gamma(t_2),\gamma(t_3)), \quad t_1 \leq t_2 \leq t_3, \;t_1,t_2,t_3 \in I, \] then \[ \text{length} \, (\gamma) \leq 42 D(\gamma), \] where \(D(\gamma)\) is the distance between the endpoints of \(\gamma\). At the end of the article two examples are presented. The first of them shows that the assertion about finiteness of the length of trajectories is false without the assumption about quasiconcavity of \(f\). The second is a continuous convex function defined in the plane whose gradient orbits turn infinitely many times around the unique minimizer of this function.