Closeness of solutions and averaging for nonlinear systems on Riemannian manifolds

Abstract

An averaging result for periodic dynamical systems evolving on Euclidean spaces is extended to those evolving on (differentiable) Riemannian manifolds. Using standard tools from differential geometry, a perturbation result for time-varying dynamical systems is developed that measures closeness of trajectories via a suitable metric on a finite time horizon. This perturbation result is then extended to bound excursions in the trajectories of periodic dynamical systems from those of their respective averages, on an infinite time horizon, yielding the specified averaging result. Some simple examples further illustrating this result are also presented.