Finite Range of Large Perturbations in Hamiltonian Dynamics

The dynamics defined by the Hamiltonian , where the _m are fixed random phases, is investigated for large values of A, and for . For a given P^* and for , this Hamiltonian is transformed through a rigorous perturbative treatment into a Hamiltonian where the sum of all the nonresonant terms, having a Q dependence of the kind cos(kQ – nt + _m) with , is a random variable whose r.m.s. with respect to the _m is exponentially small in the parameter . Using this result, a rationale is provided showing that the statistical properties of the dynamics defined by H, and of the reduced dynamics including at each time t only the terms in H such that , can be made arbitrarily close by increasing . For practical purposes close to 5 is enough, as confirmed numerically. The reduced dynamics being nondeterministic, it is thus analytically shown, without using the random-phase approximation, that the statistical properties of a chaotic Hamiltonian dynamics can be made arbitrarily close to that of a stochastic dynamics. An appropriate rescaling of momentum and time shows that the statistical properties of the dynamics defined by H can be considered as independent of A, on a finite time interval, for A large. The way these results could generalize to a wider class of Hamiltonians is indicated.