Differentiability of the minimal average action as a function of the rotation number

Let be a finite composition of exact twist diffeomorphisms. For any real number , letA() denote the minimal average action of -invariant measures with angular rotation number . We prove thatA() is differentiable at every irrational number and that for generic it is not differentiable at rational , thus verifying conjectures of S. Aubry. Moreover, we show that these results are valid for a variational principleh which satisfies the condition which we have called elsewhere (H). As a consequence, we generalize a result due to Bangert concerning geodesics on a two dimensional torus with an arbitrary, but sufficiently smooth metric.supported by NSF grant no. DMS-8806067.01 and a Guggenheim Fellowship.