0000000000302766
AUTHOR
Minoru Tanaka
One-parameter family of Clairaut-Liouville metrics
Riemannian metrics with singularities are considered on the $2$-sphere of revolution. The analysis of such singularities is motivated by examples stemming from mechanics and related to projections of higher dimensional (regular) sub-Riemannian distributions. An unfolding of the metrics in the form of an homotopy from the canonical metric on $\SS^2$ is defined which allows to analyze the singular case as a limit of standard Riemannian ones. A bifurcation of the conjugate locus for points on the singularity is finally exhibited.
Conjugate and cut loci of a two-sphere of revolution with application to optimal control
Abstract The objective of this article is to present a sharp result to determine when the cut locus for a class of metrics on a two-sphere of revolution is reduced to a single branch. This work is motivated by optimal control problems in space and quantum dynamics and gives global optimal results in orbital transfer and for Lindblad equations in quantum control.