and introduce the minimal average action, or β function. In Section 3 we discuss several
properties of the β function associated to Lagrangians on closed surfaces, with particular
attention to the implications of its differentiability, or the lack thereof, to the structure of the
Mather and Aubry sets. We consider both orientable and non-orientable surfaces, pointing out
the differences between the two cases. Finally in Section 4 we introduce the concept of C0-…