On the Lyapunov instability in Lagrangian dynamics

Abstract

In the context of mechanical Lagrangian dynamics, we prove a new Lyapunov instability criterion for a non strict local minimum equilibrium point of a smooth potential where the sufficient condition for instability is the existence of a smooth solution of a certain linear PDE derived from the mechanical Lagrangian governing the dynamics. In the presence of a magnetostatic field, we also give an additional sufficient condition for the motion of a charged particle to be Lyapunov unstable.