Morse theory for trajectories of Lagrangian systems on Riemannian manifolds with convex boundary
Rossella Bartolo, Antonio Masiello · Advances in Differential Equations · 1997
In this paper we relate the set of the orbits of a second-order Lagrangian systems joining two points on an open set with convex boundary of a Riemannian manifold with the topological structure of the open set. Such relations are obtained by developing a Morse Theory for the action integral of the Lagrangian system. Because of the presence of the boundary, the action integral does not satisfy the Palais-Smale condition. We perturb the action integral with a family of smooth functionals, satisfying the Palais-Smale condition. The Morse Relations for the action integral are obtained as limit of the Morse Relations of the perturbing functionals. A relation between the Morse index and the energy of the orbits as critical points of the action integral is obtained.