Second order optimality conditions for optimal control problems on Riemannian manifolds

Abstract

This work is concerned with optimal control problems on Riemannian manifolds, for which two typical cases are considered. The first case is when the endpoint is free. For this case, the control set is assumed to be a separable metric space. By introducing suitable dual equations, which depend on the curvature tensor of the manifold, we establish the second order necessary and sufficient optimality conditions of integral form. Particularly, when the control set is a Polish space, the second order necessary condition is reduced to a pointwise form. As a key preliminary result and also an interesting byproduct, we derive a geometric lemma, which may have some independent interest. The second case is when the endpoint is fixed. For this more difficult case, the control set is assumed to be open in a Euclidian space, and we obtain the second order necessary and sufficient optimality conditions, in which the curvature tensor also appears explicitly. Our optimality conditions can be used to recover the following famous geometry result: the shortest geodesic connecting two fixed points on a Riemannian manifold satisfies the second variation of energy; while the existing optimality conditions in control literatures fail to give the same result.