The $\infty$-elastica problem on a Riemannian manifold

Abstract

We consider the following problem: on any given complete Riemannian manifold $(M,g)$, among all curves which have fixed length as well as fixed end-points and tangents at the end-points, minimise the $L^\infty$ norm of the curvature. We show that the solutions of this problem, as well as a wider class of curves, must satisfy a second order ODE system. From this system we obtain some geometric information about the behaviour of the curves.