The Hopf--Rinow Theorem and Ma\~n\'e's Critical Value for Magnetic Geodesics on Half Lie-Groups
Abstract
In this article, we investigate \emph{right-invariant magnetic systems} on half-Lie groups, which consist of a strong right-invariant Riemannian metric and a right-invariant closed two-form. The main examples are groups of or diffeomorphisms of compact manifolds. In this setting, we define \emph{Ma\~n\'e's critical value} on the universal cover for weakly exact right-invariant magnetic fields. First, we prove that the lift of the magnetic flow to the universal cover coincides with a Finsler geodesic flow for energies above this threshold. Finally, we show that for energies above Ma\~n\'e's critical value, the full Hopf--Rinow theorem holds for such magnetic systems, thereby generalizing the work of Contreras and Merry from closed finite-dimensional manifolds to this infinite-dimensional context. Our work extends the recent results of Bauer, Harms, and Michor from geodesic flows to magnetic geodesic flows.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2510.19323,
title = {The Hopf--Rinow Theorem and Ma\~n\'e's Critical Value for Magnetic Geodesics on Half Lie-Groups},
author = {Levin Maier and Francesco Ruscelli},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.19323},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
19 pages. Comments are very welcome!