Characterization of the critical points for the free energy of a Cosserat problem

Petre Birtea, Ioan Casu, Dan Comanescu

Published 2019-07-10Version 1

Using the embedded gradient vector field method we explicitly compute the list of critical points of the free energy for a Cosserat body model. We also formulate necessary and sufficient conditions for critical points in the abstract case of the special orthogonal group $SO(n)$. Each critical point is then characterized using an explicit formula for the Hessian operator of a cost function defined on the orthogonal group. We also give a positive answer to an open question posed in L. Borisov, A. Fischle, P. Neff, "Optimality of the relaxed polar factors by a characterization of the set of real square roots of real symmetric matrices", ZAMM (2019), namely if all local minima of the optimization problem are global minima. We point out a few examples with physical relevance, in contrast to some theoretical (mathematical) situations that do not hold such a relevance.