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Main Authors: Bolle, Philippe, Mazzucchelli, Marco, Venturelli, Andrea
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.19281
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author Bolle, Philippe
Mazzucchelli, Marco
Venturelli, Andrea
author_facet Bolle, Philippe
Mazzucchelli, Marco
Venturelli, Andrea
contents A level orbit of a mechanical Hamiltonian system is a solution of Newton equation that is contained in a level set of the potential energy. In 2003, Mark Levi asked for a characterization of the smooth potential energy functions on the plane with the property that any point on the plane lies on a level orbit; we call such functions Levi potentials. The basic examples are the radial monotone increasing smooth functions. In this paper we show that any Levi potential that is analytic or has totally path-disconnected critical set must be radial. Nevertheless, we show that every compact convex subset of the plane is the critical set of a Levi potential. A crucial observation for these theorems is that, outside the critical set, the family of level sets of a Levi potential forms a solution of the inverse curvature flow.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2403_19281
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle On potentials whose level sets are orbits
Bolle, Philippe
Mazzucchelli, Marco
Venturelli, Andrea
Differential Geometry
Analysis of PDEs
Dynamical Systems
53E10, 37J06
A level orbit of a mechanical Hamiltonian system is a solution of Newton equation that is contained in a level set of the potential energy. In 2003, Mark Levi asked for a characterization of the smooth potential energy functions on the plane with the property that any point on the plane lies on a level orbit; we call such functions Levi potentials. The basic examples are the radial monotone increasing smooth functions. In this paper we show that any Levi potential that is analytic or has totally path-disconnected critical set must be radial. Nevertheless, we show that every compact convex subset of the plane is the critical set of a Levi potential. A crucial observation for these theorems is that, outside the critical set, the family of level sets of a Levi potential forms a solution of the inverse curvature flow.
title On potentials whose level sets are orbits
topic Differential Geometry
Analysis of PDEs
Dynamical Systems
53E10, 37J06
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.19281