Diffusion and drift in volume-preserving maps

A nearly-integrable dynamical system has a natural formulation in terms of actions, y (nearly constant), and angles, x (nearly rigidly rotating with frequency Ω(y)).We study angleaction maps that are close to symplectic and have a twist, the derivative of the frequency map, DΩ(y), that is positive-definite. When the map is symplectic, Nekhoroshev’s theorem implies that the actions are confined for exponentially long times: the drift is exponentially small and numerically appears to be diffusive. We show that when the symplectic condition is relaxed, but the map is still volume-preserving, the actions can have a strong drift along resonance channels. Averaging theory is used to compute the drift for the case of rank-r resonances. A comparison with computations for a generalized Froeschl´e map in four-dimensions shows that this theory gives accurate results for the rank-one case.     

On Stability of Thomson’s Vortex <Emphasis Type="Italic">N</Emphasis>-gon in the Geostrophic Model of the Point Bessel Vortices

A stability analysis of the stationary rotation of a system of N identical point Bessel vortices lying uniformly on a circle of radius R is presented. The vortices have identical intensity Γ and length scale γ^?1 > 0. The stability of the stationary motion is interpreted as equilibrium stability of a reduced system. The quadratic part of the Hamiltonian and eigenvalues of the linearization matrix are studied. The cases for N = 2,..., 6 are studied sequentially. The case of odd N = 2?+1 ≥ 7 vortices and the case of even N = 2_n ≥ 8 vortices are considered separately. It is shown that the (2? + 1)-gon is exponentially unstable for 0 < γR<R_*(N). However, this (2? + 1)-gon is stable for γR ≥ R_*(N) in the case of the linearized problem (the eigenvalues of the linearization matrix lie on the imaginary axis). The even N = 2n ≥ 8 vortex 2n-gon is exponentially unstable for R > 0.     

A fuzzy extension of Analytic Hierarchy Process based on the constrained fuzzy arithmetic

The aim of the paper is to highlight the necessity of applying the concept of constrained fuzzy arithmetic instead of the concept of standard fuzzy arithmetic in a fuzzy extension of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Emphasis is put on preserving the reciprocity of pairwise comparisons during the computations. For deriving fuzzy weights from a fuzzy pairwise comparison matrix, we consider a fuzzy extension of the geometric mean method and simplify the formulas proposed by Enea and Piazza (Fuzzy Optim Decis Mak 3:39–62, 2004). As for the computation of the overall fuzzy weights of alternatives, we reveal the inappropriateness of applying the concept of standard fuzzy arithmetic and propose the proper formulas where the interactions among the fuzzy weights are taken into account. The advantage of our approach is elimination of the false increase of uncertainty of the overall fuzzy weights. Finally, we advocate the validity of the proposed fuzzy extension of AHP; we show by an illustrative example that by neglecting the information about uncertainty of intensity of preferences we lose an important part of knowledge about the decision making problem which can cause the change in ordering of alternatives.     

Exponential operations for intuitionistic fuzzy numbers and interval numbers in multi-attribute decision making

Intuitionistic fuzzy numbers (IFNs) have already been applied to many fields, especially in multi-attribute decision making (MADM). Based on the basic operational laws and information aggregation methods of IFNs, MADM with intuitionistic fuzzy information has become more and more popular. In this paper, we investigate the MADM problems where the attribute values take the form of interval numbers and the weight information on the attributes are expressed as IFNs. We first propose a novel exponential operational law based on IFNs and interval numbers, and then study some of its desirable properties. Based on the exponential operational law, we put forward an intuitionistic fuzzy weighted exponential aggregation operator, and utilize it to develop a MADM method. Finally, we apply our method to solve the decision making problem under uncertainty.     

Measuring analogousness in picture fuzzy sets: from picture distance measures to picture association measures

In this paper, we extend the basic distance measure in picture fuzzy sets to the new measures called generalized picture distance measures and picture association measures. Some properties of these measures are examined. An application to clustering problem is given to illustrate applicability of the proposed works.     

Degenerate billiards in celestial mechanics

In an ordinary billiard trajectories of a Hamiltonian system are elastically reflected after a collision with a hypersurface (scatterer). If the scatterer is a submanifold of codimension more than one, we say that the billiard is degenerate. Degenerate billiards appear as limits of systems with singularities in celestial mechanics. We prove the existence of trajectories of such systems shadowing trajectories of the corresponding degenerate billiards. This research is motivated by the problem of second species solutions of Poincaré.     

Nonuniform exponential dichotomies and Lyapunov functions

For the nonautonomous dynamics defined by a sequence of bounded linear operators acting on an arbitrary Hilbert space, we obtain a characterization of the notion of a nonuniform exponential dichotomy in terms of quadratic Lyapunov sequences. We emphasize that, in sharp contrast with previous results, we consider the general case of possibly noninvertible linear operators, thus requiring only the invertibility along the unstable direction. As an application, we give a simple proof of the robustness of a nonuniform exponential dichotomy under sufficiently small linear perturbations.     

Computational method for phase space transport with applications to lobe dynamics and rate of escape

Lobe dynamics and escape from a potential well are general frameworks introduced to study phase space transport in chaotic dynamical systems.While the former approach studies how regions of phase space get transported by reducing the flow to a two-dimensional map, the latter approach studies the phase space structures that lead to critical events by crossing certain barriers. Lobe dynamics describes global transport in terms of lobes, parcels of phase space bounded by stable and unstable invariant manifolds associated to hyperbolic fixed points of the system. Escape from a potential well describes how the critical events occur and quantifies the rate of escape using the flux across the barriers. Both of these frameworks require computation of curves, intersection points, and the area bounded by the curves. We present a theory for classification of intersection points to compute the area bounded between the segments of the curves. This involves the partition of the intersection points into equivalence classes to apply the discrete form of Green’s theorem. We present numerical implementation of the theory, and an alternate method for curves with nontransverse intersections is also presented along with a method to insert points in the curve for densification.     

Integrable discretization and deformation of the nonholonomic Chaplygin ball

The rolling of a dynamically balanced ball on a horizontal rough table without slipping was described by Chaplygin using Abel quadratures. We discuss integrable discretizations and deformations of this nonholonomic system using the same Abel quadratures. As a by-product one gets a new geodesic flow on the unit two-dimensional sphere whose additional integrals of motion are polynomials in the momenta of fourth order.