{"@context":["https://w3id.org/fdo/context/v1",{"schema":"https://schema.org/","prov":"http://www.w3.org/ns/prov#","fdo":"https://w3id.org/fdo/vocabulary/"}],"@id":"https://fdo.portal.mardi4nfdi.de/fdo/Q670320","@type":"DigitalObject","kernel":{"@id":"https://fdo.portal.mardi4nfdi.de/fdo/Q670320","digitalObjectType":"https://schema.org/ScholarlyArticle","primaryIdentifier":"mardi:Q670320","kernelVersion":"v1","immutable":true,"modified":"2026-03-26T17:22:42Z"},"profile":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ScholarlyArticle","@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q670320","name":"On the critical points of the energy functional on vector fields of a Riemannian manifold","headline":"On the critical points of the energy functional on vector fields of a Riemannian manifold","description":"scientific article; zbMATH DE number 7037388","url":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q670320","datePublished":"2019-03-18","author":[{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q442037"},{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q1111160"}],"publisher":[{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q188382"}],"identifier":{"@type":"PropertyValue","propertyID":"doi","value":"10.1007/S10455-018-9627-Z","url":"https://doi.org/10.1007/S10455-018-9627-Z"},"sameAs":["https://doi.org/10.1007/S10455-018-9627-Z"],"comment":"Let $M$ be a compact Riemannian manifold with a Levi-Civita connection $\\nabla$, and let $G$ be a compact Lie subgroup of the isometry group $\\text{Iso}(M)$ of $M$. In this paper, the authors study the critical points of the energy functional \\[ \\mathcal F(X) = \\frac{\\int_M \\Vert \\nabla X\\Vert^2dM}{\\int_M \\Vert X\\Vert^2 dM} \\] on the space of $G$-invariant vector fields. Consider a left-invariant Riemannian metric induced by a left-invariant metric on $\\text{Iso}(M)$. Given a vector field $V \\in C^\\infty(TM)$, the $G$-symmetrization of $V$ is the vector field $V_G$ defined by setting, at a given point $p \\in M$, \\[ \\langle V_G(), u\\rangle = \\frac{1}{\\text{Vol}(G)} \\int_G \\langle (dg_p)^{-1}V(g(p)), u \\rangle dg, \\] where $u \\in T_pM$. Note that $V_G \\in C^\\infty(TM)$ is $G$-invariant, that is, $V_G(g(p)) = dg_p(V_G(p))$ for all $p\\in M$ and $g \\in G$. Let ${\\mathcal S}$ be the set of all critical points of $\\mathcal F$, and let ${\\mathcal S}_G$ be the set of all critical points of $\\mathcal F$ restricted to the subspace of $G$-invariant vector fields of $C^\\infty(TM)$. The authors prove that ${\\mathcal S}_G \\subset \\mathcal S$ and there is a case where the inclusion is strict. They obtain an integral identity as byproduct which implies that for any vector field $V$ on a rank-1 compact symmetric space $M$, if $G = \\text{Iso}(M)$, then $V_G = 0$. The authors also show that the infimum of $\\mathcal F$ on $\\mathbb{S}^3$ is not attained by a $\\mathbb{S}^3$-invariant vector field. In fact, they prove that the infimum of $\\mathcal F$ on the sphere $\\mathbb{S}^n, n \\ge 2$, of radius $1/k$ is $k^2$, and is attained by a vector field invariant by the isotropy subgroup of the isometry group of $\\mathbb{S}^n$ at any given point of $\\mathbb{S}^n$. Finally, the authors prove that if $G$ is a compact Lie subgroup of the isometry group of a compact rank-1 symmetric space $M$ which leaves pointwise fixed a totally geodesic submanifold of dimension $\\ge 1$, then the infimum of $\\mathcal F$ is attained by a $G$-invariant vector field.","citation":[{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q2540689"},{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q2547056"},{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q2785539"},{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q4278677"},{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q5615235"}]},"provenance":{"prov:generatedAtTime":"2026-03-26T17:22:42Z","prov:wasAttributedTo":"MaRDI Knowledge Graph"}}