A Morse index formula for periodic brake orbits of reversible mechanical Lagrangian systems

Abstract: It is well-known that fixed energy solutions of a reversible autonomous Lagrangian system are up to time reparametrization geodesics of the Jacobi-Maupertuis metric, which degenerates at the boundary of the Hill's region. In a paper, Montgomery proved that geodesics hitting the boundary at a regular point always contain pairs of focal points, and hence in particular cannot be minima of the energy functional. Starting from this, we provide a precise Morse index formula for periodic brake orbits of a reversible autonomous Lagrangian system by computing the local contribution to the Morse index provided at each brake instant. We finally discuss an application to a doubly coupled harmonic oscillator.