Hill's formula

Abstract

In his study of periodic orbits of the 3 body problem, Hill obtained a formula relating the characteristic polynomial of the monodromy matrix of a periodic orbit and an infinite determinant of the Hessian of the action functional. A mathematically correct definition of the Hill determinant and a proof of Hill's formula were obtained later by Poincaré. We give two multidimensional generalizations of Hill's formula: to discrete Lagrangian systems (symplectic twist maps) and continuous Lagrangian systems. We discuss additional aspects which appear in the presence of symmetries or reversibility. We also study the change of the Morse index of a periodic trajectory after the reduction of order in a system with symmetries. Applications are given to the problem of stability of periodic orbits.

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