English

Closed Magnetic geodesics on Heisenberg nilmanifolds

Differential Geometry 2026-05-21 v2

Abstract

In this work we study the existence of closed magnetic geodesics on three-dimensional Heisenberg nilmanifolds for every left-invariant Lorentz force. Our first objective is to establish the existence of closed contractible magnetic geodesics on H3H_3. Once the invariant magnetic field is induced to a compact quotient M=Λ\H3M=\Lambda \backslash H_3, we study magnetic geodesics on MM. Firstly, we determine conditions on a lattice ΛH3\Lambda \subset H_3 to ensure that a given magnetic geodesic projects to a closed curve on MM. In particular, we prove that for {\it any} energy level below the Ma\~n\'e critical value there always exists a contractible closed magnetic geodesic on the compact manifold MM. On the other hand, we show that closed magnetic geodesics do not necessarily exist in every homotopy class. Finally, we present examples of compact quotients Γk\H3\Gamma_k\backslash H_3 that admit infinitely many closed magnetic trajectories, as well as examples for which no closed non-contractible magnetic trajectories exist for a given left-invariant Lorentz force.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2407.05515,
  title  = {Closed Magnetic geodesics on Heisenberg nilmanifolds},
  author = {Gabriela P. Ovando and Mauro Subils},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2407.05515},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

30 pages including two pages of appendix