G₂ and the rolling distribution

DOI10.5169/SEALS-110100MaRDI QIDQ2272256zbMATH OpenFDO

Authors Gil Bor, Richard Montgomery

Publication date 10 August 2009

Published in L'Enseignement Mathématique. 2e Série (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0612469, http://www.count.ucsc.edu/~rmont/papers/R9A.pdf

zbMATH Keywords

Lie groups

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Nonholonomic dynamical systems (37J60) Motion of a rigid body in contact with a solid surface (70E18) Nonholonomic systems related to the dynamics of a system of particles (70F25)

Abstract: Associated to the problem of rolling one surface along another there is a five-manifold M with a rank two distribution. If the two surfaces are spheres then M is the product of the rotation group SO_3 with the two-sphere and its distribution enjoys an obvious symmetry group; the product of two SO_3's, one for each sphere. But if the ratio of radii of the spheres is 1:3 and if the distribution is lifted to the universal cover S^3 imes S^2 of M, then the symmetry group becomes much larger: the split real form of the Lie group G_2. This fact goes back to Cartan in a sense, and can be found in a paper by Bryant and Hsu. We prove this fact through two explicit constructions, relying on the theory of roots and weights for the Lie algebra of G_2, and on its 7-dimensional representation.

Review text

Two balls of different radii, \(r\) and \(R\), rolling along each other, without slipping or spinning, are considered. The configuration space for this system is a 5-dimensional manifold on which the no-slip/no-spin condition defines a rank 2 distribution, the rolling distribution which is related with the exceptional Lie group \(G_2\). A theorem concerning properties if this distribution was proved by Élie Cartan in 1898 which is valid only for the radii ratio \(3:1\) or \(1:3\). The authors propose another proof of this theorem avoiding the Cartan's sophisticated approach.

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Cited in

(32)

• Embedding algorithms and applications to differential equations
• Free nilpotent Lie algebras admitting ad-invariant metrics
• The contact mappings of a flat \((2,3,5)\)-distribution
• On \(\operatorname{G}_2\) and sub-Riemannian model spaces of step and rank three
• Ants and bracket generating distributions in dimensions 5 and 6
• Analytic torsion of generic rank two distributions in dimension five
• Geometric conditions for the existence of a rolling without twisting or slipping
• Twistor space for rolling bodies
• Duality on geodesics of Cartan distributions and sub-Riemannian pseudo-product structures
• Homogeneous real (2,3,5) distributions with isotropy
• Rubber rolling: geometry and dynamics of 2-3-5 distributions
• \(\mathrm{G}_{2}\) and the rolling ball
• The dancing metric, ${G}_2$-symmetry and projective rolling
• On 5-manifolds admitting rank two distributions of Cartan type
• Open problems in the theory of finite-dimensional integrable systems and related fields
• Cartan meets Chaplygin
• DUALITY OF (2, 3, 5)-DISTRIBUTIONS AND LAGRANGIAN CONE STRUCTURES
• A Monge normal form for the rolling distribution
• The geometry of almost Einstein \((2,3,5)\) distributions
• Local equivalence of some maximally symmetric rolling distributions and \(SU(2)\) Pfaffian systems
• Dancing polygons, rolling balls, and the Cartan-Engel distribution
• Conservation laws, hierarchy of dynamics and explicit integration of nonholonomic systems
• Rubber rolling over a sphere
• Analytic torsion of nilmanifolds with (2, 3, 5) distributions
• Local equivalence of some maximally symmetric (2,3,5)-distributions II.
• Conformal structures with G₂-symmetric twistor distribution
• Symmetries of (2, 3, 5)-distributions and associated Legendrian cone structures
• A monster tower approach to Goursat multi-flags
• Cartan's incomplete classification and an explicit ambient metric of holonomy \(\mathrm G_2^\ast\)
• Regularized determinants of the Rumin complex in irreducible unitary representations of the (2, 3, 5) nilpotent Lie group
• Symmetries of the rolling model
• Chaplygin systems associated to Cartan decompositions of semi-simple Lie groups

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