22 1. RICCI SOLITONS
new phase plane coordinates
x
X~y'n-,
y
y ~ y'n(n - 1).
y
As x -----t O+ and y -----t +oo,
X -----t O+ and Y -----t O+.
(The constants are chosen so that the invariant hyperbola becomes the unit
circle in the XY-plane.) With a new independent variable s such that
ds ~ y dt, we have
(1.54) --dX -X3 - X +a y2
ds ' ~ =Y(X
(^2) -aX),
where a ~ 1/ y'n. In these coordinates, the first integral corresponds to a
Lyapunov function L ~ X^2 + Y^2 which satisfies dL/ds = 2X^2 (L-l). Since
L < 1 for this trajectory, L is strictly decreasing but dL/ds 2: 2L(L - 1).
So, the trajectory approaches the origin exponentially as s -----t +oo. Since
(1.55)
1 dY
d(logw) = xdt = y'ii,X _ 1 Y'
it suffices to find the limiting behavior of X in terms of Y. Note that for X
and Y small, (1.54) implies
dX 2
-R:!-X+aY
ds '
dY
ds R:! -aXY.
In particular, we expect -X + aY^2 -----t 0 as s -----t +oo. Indeed, we have the
following.
LEMMA 1.33.
and
where a = 1/ y'n.
. x
s->+oo hm y^2 =a
. X-aY^2 3
s->+oo hm y^4 = 2a,
PROOF. One might try to apply l'Hopital's Rule to find the limit of
X/Y^2 • However,
(1.56) 2..ik____ .!l. x - -x ( x
(^2) - 1 ) 1
.!l.y2 ds - y2 x2 - aX + ynX2 -X
shows that this is not straightforward, since the limit of X/Y^2 is also in-
volved in the right-hand side. Let g(s) = X and h(s) = Y^2 and apply the
Cauchy mean value formula (see, e.g., [10]):
g^1 (c)(h(a) - h(b)) = h'(c)(g(a) - g(b))