# Rigidity for periodic magnetic fields

## 1 Introduction

It was proved by E. Hopf , that for Riemannian 2-torus with non-zero curvature there always exist geodesics with conjugate points. In  this result was finaly generalised to higher dimensions. We refer the reader to , ,  and  for a non-complete list of previous important contributions. It was discovered in ,  ( see also ) that the nature of E. Hopf rigidity is not entirely Riemannian and can be established for other variational problems. In each case this requires some new integral geometric tool adapted for the system under consideration.

In this paper we give a proof of such a rigidity result for the motion of a charged particle on a torus in the presence of the magnetic field, provided the Riemannian metric is conformally flat. This result gives the twisted version of a theorem by A. Knauf and C .Croke-A. Fathi ( and ). We formulate the conjecture that the restriction of conformal flatness is not essential for the result. This, being true, would provide a twisted version of Burago-Ivanov theorem.

In the situation we consider, it would be reasonable to think that there always exist a periodic orbit with conjugate points. This fact is, however, much more difficult to approach. It is not proved to the best of our knowledge even in the usual untwisted case. Moreover, it seems that the fact of existence of periodic orbit is still not completely answered for arbitrary magnetic field on the torus. We refer the reader to a survey paper by V. Ginzburg  for known results and techniques.

## 2 Main Results

Magnetic field on a torus $`T^n`$ is a closed 2-form which we will denote by $`\beta `$. Consider the cotangent bundle $`T^{}T^n`$ and define the symplectic structure twisted by $`\beta `$.

$$\omega =\omega _0+\pi ^{}\beta $$

where $`\omega _0`$ is a standard structure and $`\pi `$ is the canonical projection.

For a Riemannian metric $`g`$ on $`T^n`$ consider the Hamiltonian flow $`g^t`$ of the function $`H`$

$$H=\frac{1}{2}<p,p>_g$$

computed with the help of the symplectic structure $`\omega `$. Let me remind that no conjugate points condition for the orbit $`\vartheta `$ of $`g^t`$ means that for any two points $`x,y\vartheta `$

$$g_{}^tV(x)V(y)$$

where $`t`$ is a time difference between $`y`$ and $`x`$ and $`V(x)`$, $`V(y)`$ are vertical subspaces at $`x,y`$.

###### Theorem 1

Suppose that the Riemannian metric $`g`$ is conformally flat. Then there always exist orbits of $`g^t`$ on the level of $`\{H=1/2\}`$ with conjugate points unless the 2-form $`\beta `$ vanishes identically.

###### Remark 1

In other words, no conjugate points condition implies $`\beta 0`$ and then it follows from  and  that the metric is flat too. Actually, we will see it once more by our computations later.

The proof which is suggested in this paper follows the original scheme by E. Hopf. However, it might need serious modifications if one tries to generalize the result for arbitrary Riemannian metric.

The first ingredient of the proof is to construct measurable field of Lagrangian subspaces $`l(x)T_x(T^{}T^n)`$ for any $`x\{H=1/2\}`$. This field can be constructed by the following limit procedure:

$$l(x)=lim_{t+\mathrm{}}g_{}^tV\left(g^t(x)\right)$$

It was first used by E. Hopf  and L. Green  for Riemannian case. We refer the reader to recent paper  for the proof in a general optical case.

It follows from the very construction of $`l`$ that the field $`l`$ is invariant under $`g^t`$ and is transversal to the vertical field $`V`$ everywhere.

With the construction of $`l`$ Theorem 1 is a corollary of the following

###### Theorem 2

Let $`l`$ be a measurable field of Lagragian subspaces invariant under the flow $`g^t`$. If $`l`$ is transversal to $`V`$ everywhere then $`\beta `$ vanishes identically, and the metric $`g`$ is flat.

This last theorem has the following dynamical interpretation.

###### Theorem 3

Suppose that the energy shell $`\{H=1/2\}`$ is smoothly foliated by Lagrangian tori homologous to the zero section of $`T^{}T^n`$. Then the 2-form $`\beta `$ vanishes identically and the metric is flat.

###### Remark 2

In the paper , such a situation is called total integrability and simple examples of totally integrable magnetic geodesic flows are given. Let me remark that the Lagrangian torii in all these examples cannot be homologous to the zero section as it follows from Theorem 3. It is an interesting, completely open problem to characterise totally integrable magnetic geodesic flows.

Acknowledgements

I was introduced to the subject of magnetic fields by Viktor Ginzburg (UC Santa Cruz). He suggested to me the question on the rigidity for magnetic fields. I am deeply grateful to him for many very useful discussions.

The results of this paper were presented at the Symplectic Geometry meeting in Warwick 1998 and on the Arthur Besse Geometry Seminar. I am thankful to D. Salamon, F. Laudenbach and P. Gauduchon for inviting me to speak there.

I would also like to thank the EPSRC and Arc-en-Ciel for their support.

## 3 Proofs

Let me explain first how Theorem 3 follows from Theorem 2. Since the torii are Lagrangian and homologous to the zero section then the 2-form $`\beta `$ must be exact. Denote by $`\alpha `$ the primitive 1-form. Then one can easily see that the flow $`g^t`$ is equivalent to the Hamiltonian flow $`\stackrel{~}{g}^t`$ of the function $`\stackrel{~}{H}=1/2<p\alpha ,p\alpha >_g`$ with respect to the standard structure $`\omega _0`$. This equivalence is given by the diffeomorphism $`(q,p)(q,p+\alpha )`$ which is fiber preserving. Note that the function $`\stackrel{~}{H}`$ is strictly convex with respect to $`p`$. It follows from generalised Birkhoff theorem (see  for its most general form and for the survey and discussions) that all the Lagrangian torii are the sections of the cotangent bundle. But then the distribution of their tangent spaces meets the conditions of Theorem 2.

Proof of Theorem 2

We shall work in standard coordinates $`(q,p)`$ on $`T^{}T^n`$, such that the Riemannian metric $`g`$ is given by

$$ds^2=\frac{1}{2\lambda }\left(dq_1^2+\mathrm{}+dq_n^2\right).$$

Then

$$H(p,q)=\frac{\lambda }{2}\left(p_1^2+\mathrm{}+p_n^2\right)$$
(3.1)   
Write $`\beta =d\alpha +\gamma `$, where $`\alpha `$ is a 1-form and $`\gamma `$ is a 2-form, having constant coefficients in the coordinates $`(q_1\mathrm{}q_n)`$, $`\gamma =\mathrm{\Sigma }_{i<j}\gamma _{ij}dq_idq_j`$. By the change of coordinates

$$(q,p)(q,p+\alpha )$$

we have an equivalent Hamiltonian flow $`\stackrel{~}{g}^t`$ of

$$\stackrel{~}{H}(p,q)=H(p\alpha ,q)=\frac{1}{2}\lambda \left((p_1\alpha _1)^2+\mathrm{}+(p_n\alpha _n)^2\right)$$

with respect to the symplectic form

$$\stackrel{~}{\omega }=\omega _0+\gamma =\mathrm{\Sigma }_{i=1}^ndp_idq_i+\mathrm{\Sigma }_{i<\gamma }\gamma _{ij}dq_idq_j.$$

Denote by $`\stackrel{~}{l}`$ the invariant distribution of Lagrangian subspaces with respect to $`\stackrel{~}{\omega }`$. At any point $`x=(q,p)\{\stackrel{~}{H}=1/2\}`$ it is given by a matrix $`A(x)`$:

$$dp=A(p,q)dq$$

The condition to be Lagrangian is equivalent to

$$A^TA=\mathrm{\Gamma }$$

where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is the skew symmetric matrix of $`\gamma `$. Then $`A`$ is a measurable matrix function and satisfies the following Ricatti equation along the flow $`\stackrel{~}{g}^t`$.

$$\dot{A}+(A+\mathrm{\Gamma })\stackrel{~}{H}_{pp}A+(A+\mathrm{\Gamma })\stackrel{~}{H}_{pq}+\stackrel{~}{H}_{qp}A+\stackrel{~}{H}_{qq}=0$$

where $`\stackrel{~}{H}_{pp}`$, $`\stackrel{~}{H}_{pq}`$, $`\stackrel{~}{H}_{qq}`$ are the matrices of second derivatives of $`\stackrel{~}{H}`$. Then it can be written in the form

$`\dot{A}`$ $`+`$ $`\left((A+\mathrm{\Gamma })\stackrel{~}{H}_{pp}^{1/2}+\stackrel{~}{H}_{qp}\stackrel{~}{H}_{pp}^{1/2}\right)\left(\stackrel{~}{H}_{pp}^{1/2}A+\stackrel{~}{H}_{pp}^{1/2}\stackrel{~}{H}_{pq}\right)`$   
$`+`$ $`\left(\stackrel{~}{H}_{qq}\stackrel{~}{H}_{qp}\stackrel{~}{H}_{pp}^1\stackrel{~}{H}_{pq}\right)=0`$   
Introduce the function $`a(p,q)=trA(p,q)`$. Then it follows

$$\dot{a}+tr\left(\stackrel{~}{H}_{qq}\stackrel{~}{H}_{qp}\stackrel{~}{H}_{pp}^1\stackrel{~}{H}_{pq}\right)0$$

with equality possible only when $`A=\stackrel{~}{H}_{pp}^1\stackrel{~}{H}_{pq}`$. Integrate now this inequality with respect to the invariant measure $`\stackrel{~}{\mu }`$ on the energy level $`\stackrel{~}{H}=1/2`$. We get the following

$$\sigma (\stackrel{~}{H})=tr\left(\stackrel{~}{H}_{qq}\stackrel{~}{H}_{qp}\stackrel{~}{H}_{pp}^1\stackrel{~}{H}_{pq}\right)𝑑\stackrel{~}{\mu }0$$
(3.2)   
with equality possible only for $`A=\stackrel{~}{H}_{pp}^1\stackrel{~}{H}_{pq}`$ everywhere on the level $`\{\stackrel{~}{H}=1/2\}`$. On the other hand, we shall compute $`\sigma (\stackrel{~}{H})`$ by the following:

###### Lemma 1

For any Hamiltonian function $`H(p,q)`$ convex and symmetric in $`p`$ $`H(p,q)=H(p,q)`$ it follows that $`\sigma (\stackrel{~}{H})=\sigma (H)`$ where $`\stackrel{~}{H}(p,q)=H(p\alpha (q),q)`$ for any 1-form $`\alpha `$. Here $`\sigma (H)`$ is computed by the integral (3.2) with respect to the hamiltonian $`H`$ and the invariant measure $`\mu `$ of $`g^t`$.

###### Lemma 2

If $`H`$ is given by (3.1) then $`\sigma (H)0`$ and equality is achieved only when $`\lambda =const`$.

###### Remark 3

The last Lemma is actually the inequality proved in , but here it appears in the Hamiltonian version.

Let me complete the proof of the theorem, postponing ones of the Lemmas.

Comparing (3.2) with Lemmas 1 and 2, one concludes that the metric is Euclidean and

$$A=\stackrel{~}{H}_{pp}^1\stackrel{~}{H}_{pq},\text{where}\stackrel{~}{H}=\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{\Sigma }_{i=1}^n\left(p_i\alpha _i\right)^2$$

Then

$$A=\left(A_{ij}\right)=\left(\stackrel{~}{H}_{p_iq_j}\right)=\left(\frac{\alpha _i}{q_j}\right)$$
(3.3)   
Compute and plug the second derivatives in the Ricatti equation. We have

$$(tr\dot{A})=tr\left(\stackrel{~}{H}_{qq}\stackrel{~}{H}_{qp}\stackrel{~}{H}_{pp}^1\stackrel{~}{H}_{pq}\right)=\mathrm{\Sigma }_{ij=1}^n\left(p_j\alpha _j\right)\frac{^2\alpha _j}{q_i^2}$$

Differentiating $`trA`$ explicitly along the flow $`\stackrel{~}{g}^t`$, one gets another expression

$$(tr\dot{A})=\mathrm{\Sigma }_{j=1}^n\frac{(trA)}{q_j}\stackrel{~}{H}_{p_j}=\mathrm{\Sigma }_{ij=1}^n(p_j\alpha _j)\frac{^2\alpha _i}{q_iq_j}$$

Comparing these two expression we obtain

$$\frac{(trA)}{q_j}=\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha _j\text{for}j=1,\mathrm{}n.$$

Then the compatibility condition gives

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\left(\frac{\alpha _k}{q_j}\frac{\alpha _j}{q_k}\right)=0\text{for any}j,k=1,\mathrm{}n.$$

This implies

$$\frac{\alpha _k}{q_j}\frac{\alpha _j}{q_k}const=0\text{and thus}d\alpha =0.$$

Also by (3.3) we have $`A^TA=\mathrm{\Gamma }=0`$. So $`\beta =d\alpha +\gamma =0`$. This completes the proof of the theorem. $`\mathrm{}`$

Proof of Lemma 1

We have to show that $`\sigma `$ is the same for $`H`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{H}=H(p\alpha (q),q)`$. The direct computation gives the following expressions for the matrices of second derivatives.

$`\stackrel{~}{H}_{pp}`$ $`=`$ $`H_{pp}`$   
$`\stackrel{~}{H}_{pq}`$ $`=`$ $`H_{pp}D\alpha +H_{pq},\stackrel{~}{H}_{qp}=(D\alpha )^TH_{pp}+H_{qp}`$   
$`\stackrel{~}{H}_{qq}`$ $`=`$ $`(D\alpha )^TH_{pp}(D\alpha )H_{qp}D\alpha (D\alpha )^TH_{pq}+H_{qq}+M`$   
$`\text{where}M`$ $`=`$ $`(M_{ij}),M_{ij}=\mathrm{\Sigma }_{k=1}^nH_{p_k}{\displaystyle \frac{^2\alpha _k}{q_iq_j}}`$   
Thus we have after performing change of variables $`(q,p)(q,p\alpha )`$

$$\sigma (\stackrel{~}{H})=\sigma (H)+_{\left\{H=\frac{1}{2}\right\}}\mathrm{\Sigma }_{k,i=1}^nH_{p_k}\frac{^2\alpha _k}{q_i^2}𝑑\mu $$

By the symmetry assumption this additional integral vanishes because the integrand is odd function and the level is even. This completes the proof of the lemma. $`\mathrm{}`$

Proof of Lemma 2

The second derivative for the Hamiltonian $`H=\lambda /2\left(p_1^2+\mathrm{}+p_n^2\right)`$ are given by the formulas

$$H_{p_ip_j}=\lambda \delta _{ij},H_{q_iq_j}=\frac{1}{2}(\lambda )_{q_iq_j}\left(p_1^2+\mathrm{}+p_n^2\right),H_{p_iq_j}=\lambda _{q_j}p_i$$

Thus for the points of the energy level $`\left\{H=\frac{1}{2}\right\}`$

$$tr\left(H_{qq}H_{qp}H_{pp}^1H_{pq}\right)=\frac{1}{2\lambda }\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda \frac{1}{2\lambda ^2}(grad\lambda )^2$$

The invariant measure $`\mu `$ on $`\left\{H=\frac{1}{2}\right\}`$ is computed from the condition

$$d\mu dH=\omega _0^n$$

and then can be easily computed and equals

$$d\mu =\left(\frac{1}{\sqrt{\lambda }}\right)^nd\sigma dq$$

where $`d\sigma `$ is a standard measure on unit sphere in $`p`$ space. Then we have

$$\sigma (H)=Vol(S^{n1})\left(\frac{1}{2\lambda }\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda \frac{1}{2\lambda ^2}(grad\lambda )^2\right)\left(\frac{1}{\sqrt{\lambda }}\right)^n𝑑q$$

Integrating by parts we obtain

$$\sigma (H)=Vol(S^{n1})\left(\frac{n2}{4}\right)\lambda ^{2\frac{n}{2}}(grad\lambda )^2𝑑q$$

From this expression the assertion follows. $`\mathrm{}`$

## 4 Some Open Problems

Let me discuss here some natural open problems.

In the proof of Theorem 3 we noticed first that the form $`\beta `$ must be exact and then showed that it vanishes. It may happen that the condition of existence of invariant distribution of Lagrangian non-vertical subspaces also implies that the form $`\beta `$ is exact. We were not able, however, to find a direct proof of this fact.

It is an important problem to study those magnetic fields having integrable twisted geodesic flow. The simplest possible topology of the phase portrait is one for the totally integrable flows. It is not clear how to characterise those flows even for dimension 2. One natural class of examples is for $`S^1`$ symmetric magnetic field $`\beta =\beta (q_1)dq_1dq_2`$. We don’t know if there are other examples. Note that the Lagrangian torii of the foliation can not be homologous to the zero section ( theorem 3) .

One would like to generalise our results to the case of any Riemannian metric on $`T^n`$. However, it may happen that twisted version of Burago-Ivanov proof should be found. It should be mentioned that our approach works each time when it is related to a good choice of coordinates in the phase space. It is not clear to me however, if the coordinates of  are good for our approach.