Transversality Conditions for Boundary Constraints Defined by Differential Equations
Abstract
What are the transversality conditions for an optimal control problem when the boundary conditions are defined by differential equations? This seemingly bizarre question is motivated by trajectory optimization problems in the N-body system. The question, however, is more fundamental and goes beyond problems in astrodynamics to nonintegrable dynamical systems in general. The main contribution of this paper is the development of generic initial- and final-time transversality conditions for optimal control problems whose boundary conditions are defined in terms of differential equations with side conditions. The mathematical definition of differential boundary conditions are part of the foundations developed in this paper. To support the new fundamentals, the concept of coordinated/uncoordinated clock times and weak adjoint covectors are introduced. In the case of uncoordinated clock times, the new transversality conditions reveal that there exists a special situation where a weak adjoint covector is orthogonal to the vector field of the boundary differential equation. This condition is sharply different from the classical statement of orthogonality with respect to the endpoint manifold. The theorems developed in this paper are generic. An application of the theorems to several cases in the three-body problem are described in separate papers.
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BibTeX
@misc{ross2026transversality,
title = {{Transversality Conditions for Boundary Constraints Defined by Differential Equations}},
author = {Isaac M Ross},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.04084},
eprint = {2609.04084},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.04084},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Transversality Conditions for Boundary Constraints Defined by Differential Equations
AU - Isaac M Ross
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/03
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.04084
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.04084
AB - What are the transversality conditions for an optimal control problem when the boundary conditions are defined by differential equations? This seemingly bizarre question is motivated by trajectory optimization problems in the N-body system. The question, however, is more fundamental and goes beyond problems in astrodynamics to nonintegrable dynamical systems in general. The main contribution of this paper is the development of generic initial- and final-time transversality conditions for optimal control problems whose boundary conditions are defined in terms of differential equations with side conditions. The mathematical definition of differential boundary conditions are part of the foundations developed in this paper. To support the new fundamentals, the concept of coordinated/uncoordinated clock times and weak adjoint covectors are introduced. In the case of uncoordinated clock times, the new transversality conditions reveal that there exists a special situation where a weak adjoint covector is orthogonal to the vector field of the boundary differential equation. This condition is sharply different from the classical statement of orthogonality with respect to the endpoint manifold. The theorems developed in this paper are generic. An application of the theorems to several cases in the three-body problem are described in separate papers.
ER -