Irregular dynamics and homoclinic orbits to Hamiltonian saddle centers

We consider 4-dimensional, real, analytic Hamiltonian systems with a saddle center equilibrium (related to a pair of real and a pair of imaginary eigenvalues) and a homoclinic orbit to it. We find conditions for the existence of transversal homoclinic orbits to periodic orbits of long period in every energy level sufficiently close to the energy level of the saddle center equilibrium. We also consider one-parameter families of reversible, 4-dimensional Hamiltonian systems. We prove that the set of parameter values where the system has homoclinic orbits to a saddle center equilibrium has no isolated points. We also present similar results for systems with heteroclinic orbits to saddle center equilibria. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Multi-bump orbits homoclinic to resonance bands

We establish the existence of several classes of multi-bump orbits homoclinic to resonance bands for completely-integrable Hamiltonian systems subject to small-amplitude Hamiltonian or dissipative perturbations. Each bump is a fast excursion away from the resonance band, and the bumps are interspersed with slow segments near the resonance band. The homoclinic orbits, which include multi-bump \v{S}ilnikov orbits, connect equilibria and periodic orbits in the resonance band. The main tools we use in the existence proofs are the exchange lemma with exponentially small error and the existence theory of orbits homoclinic to resonance bands which make only one fast excursion away from the resonance bands.

     

Lyapunov's center theorem for resonant equilibrium

Lyapunov's center theorem relative to the existence of families of periodic orbits emanating from an equilibrium is generalized to cases where a resonance occurs between two basic frequencies. Analytical Hamiltonian systems are considered and the theorems depend on the nonannulation of an invariant of the system.The proof is performed in two steps. In a first step the theorems are shown to be valid for some approximation of the Hamiltonian system. These results are described in a previous paper (Henrard, 1970) and are only summarized here. In a second step Poincaré's perturbation theorem is generalized in order to transfer to the original system the conclusions relatives to its approximations.In the conclusion, our results are compared with similar results published recently.     

Heteroclinic Transition Motions in Periodic Perturbations of Conservative Systems with an Application to Forced Rigid Body Dynamics

We consider periodic perturbations of conservative systems. The unperturbed systems are assumed to have two nonhyperbolic equilibria connected by a heteroclinic orbit on each level set of conservative quantities. These equilibria construct two normally hyperbolic invariant manifolds in the unperturbed phase space, and by invariant manifold theory there exist two normally hyperbolic, locally invariant manifolds in the perturbed phase space. We extend Melnikov’s method to give a condition under which the stable and unstable manifolds of these locally invariant manifolds intersect transversely. Moreover, when the locally invariant manifolds consist of nonhyperbolic periodic orbits, we show that there can exist heteroclinic orbits connecting periodic orbits near the unperturbed equilibria on distinct level sets. This behavior can occur even when the two unperturbed equilibria on each level set coincide and have a homoclinic orbit. In addition, it yields transition motions between neighborhoods of very distant periodic orbits, which are similar to Arnold diffusion for three or more degree of freedom Hamiltonian systems possessing a sequence of heteroclinic orbits to invariant tori, if there exists a sequence of heteroclinic orbits connecting periodic orbits successively.We illustrate our theory for rotational motions of a periodically forced rigid body. Numerical computations to support the theoretical results are also given.     

The necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of periodic orbits in a Lotka-Volterra system

By extending Darboux method to three dimension, we present necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of periodic orbits in three species Lotka-Volterra systems with the same intrinsic growth rates. Therefore, all the published sufficient or necessary conditions for the existence of periodic orbits of the system are included in our results. Furthermore, we prove the stability of periodic orbits. Hopf bifurcation is shown for the emergence of periodic orbits and new phenomenon is presented: at critical values, each equilibrium are surrounded by either equilibria or periodic orbits.     

On averaging,reduction, and symmetry in hamiltonian systems

The existence of periodic orbits for Hamiltonian systems at low positive energies can be deduced from the existence of nondegenerate critical points of an averaged Hamiltonian on an associated “reduced space.” Alternatively, in classical (kinetic plus potential energy) Hamiltonians the existence of such orbits can often be established by elementary geometrical arguments. The present paper unifies the two approaches by exploiting discrete symmetries, including reversing diffeomorphisms, that occur in a given system. The symmetries are used to locate the periodic orbits in the averaged Hamiltonian, and thence in the original Hamiltonian when the periodic orbits are continued under perturbations admitting the same symmetries. In applications to the Hénon-Heiles Hamiltonian, it is illustrated how “higher order” averaging can sometimes be used to overcome degeneracies encountered at first order.     

Dynamics near relative equilibria: Nongeneric momenta at a 1:1 group-reduced resonance

An interesting situation occurs when the linearized dynamics of the shape of a formally stable Hamiltonian relative equilibrium at nongeneric momentum 1:1 resonates with a frequency of the relative equilibrium's generator. In this case some of the shape variables couple to the group variables to first order in the momentum perturbation, and the first order perturbation theory implies that the relative equilibrium slowly changes orientation in the same way that a charged particle with magnetic moment moves on a sphere under the influence of a radial magnetic monopole. In the course of showing this a normal form is constructed for linearizations of relative equilibria and for Hamiltonians near group orbits of relative equilibria. Received August 27, 1998; in final form February 20, 1999     

Continuation of relative periodic orbits in a class of triatomic Hamiltonian systems

We study relative periodic orbits (i.e. time-periodic orbits in a frame rotating at constant velocity) in a class of triatomic Euclidean-invariant (planar) Hamiltonian systems. The system consists of two identical heavy atoms and a light one, and the atomic mass ratio is treated as a continuation parameter. Under some nondegeneracy conditions, we show that a given family of relative periodic orbits existing at infinite mass ratio (and parametrized by phase, rotational degree of freedom and period) persists for sufficiently large mass ratio and for nearby angular velocities (this result is valid for small angular velocities). The proof is based on a method initially introduced by Sepulchre and MacKay [J.-A. Sepulchre, R.S. MacKay, Localized oscillations in conservative or dissipative networks of weakly coupled autonomous oscillators, Nonlinearity 10 (1997) 679–713] and further developed by Muñoz-Almaraz et al. [F.J. Muñoz-Almaraz, et al., Continuation of periodic orbits in conservative and Hamiltonian systems, Physica D 181 (2003) 1–38] for the continuation of normal periodic orbits in Hamiltonian systems. Our results provide several types of relative periodic orbits, which extend from small amplitude relative normal modes [J.-P. Ortega, Relative normal modes for nonlinear Hamiltonian systems, Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh Sect. A 133 (2003) 665–704] up to large amplitude solutions which are not restrained to a small neighborhood of a stable relative equilibrium. In particular, we show the existence of large amplitude motions of inversion, where the light atom periodically crosses the segment between heavy atoms. This analysis is completed by numerical results on the stability and bifurcations of some inversion orbits as their angular velocity is varied.     

Shilnikov lemma for a nondegenerate critical manifold of a Hamiltonian system

Let M be a normally hyperbolic symplectic critical manifold of a Hamiltonian system. Suppose M consists of equilibria with real eigenvalues. We prove an analog of the Shilnikov lemma (strong version of the λ-lemma) describing the behavior of trajectories near M. Using this result, trajectories shadowing chains of homoclinic orbits to M are represented as extremals of a discrete variational problem. Then the existence of shadowing periodic orbits is proved. This paper is motivated by applications to the Poincaré’s second species solutions of the 3 body problem with 2 masses small of order µ. As µ → 0, double collisions of small bodies correspond to a symplectic critical manifold M of the regularized Hamiltonian system. Thus our results imply the existence of Poincaré’s second species (nearly collision) periodic solutions for the unrestricted 3 body problem.     

Long periodic orbits near an equilibrium and the averaging method in higher-order resonances

We consider the bifurcation of periodic orbits from an equilibrium in Hamiltonian systems. The averaging method is developed in higher-order resonance cases. For systems with general degrees of freedom, the conditions for the existence of long periodic orbits can be written in a simple form in terms of the coefficients of higher-order terms of the normalized Hamiltonian function.     

Long periodic shadowing

A general theorem for establishing the existence of a true periodic orbit near a numerically computed pseudoperiodic orbit of an autonomous system of ordinary differential equations is presented. For practical applications, a Newton method is devised to compute appropriate pseudoperiodic orbits. Then numerical considerations for checking the hypotheses of the theorem in terms of quantities which can be computed directly from the pseudoperiodic orbit and the vector field are addressed. Finally, a numerical method for estimating the Lyapunov exponents of the true periodic orbit is given. The theory and computations are designed to be applicable for unstable periodic orbits with long periods. The existence of several such periodic orbits of the Lorenz equations is exhibited. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Relative equilibria of Hamiltonian systems with symmetry: Linearization,smoothness, and drift

Summary A relative equilibrium of a Hamiltonian system with symmetry is a point of phase space giving an evolution which is a one-parameter orbit of the action of the symmetry group of the system. The evolutions of sufficiently small perturbations of a formally stable relative equilibrium are arbitrarily confined to that relative equilibrium's orbit under the isotropy subgroup of its momentum. However, interesting evolution along that orbit, here called drift, does occur. In this article, linearizations of relative equilibria are used to construct a first order perturbation theory explaining drift, and also to determine when the set of relative equilibria near a given relative equilibrium is a smooth symplectic submanifold of phase space.     

Persistance d’orbites périodiques relatives dans les systèmes hamiltoniens symétriques

It was known to Poincaré that a non-degenerate periodic orbit in a Hamiltonian system persists to nearby energy-levels. In this Note, we consider the analogous problem for relative periodic orbits in symmetric Hamiltonian systems. We show that non-degenerate relative periodic orbits also persist when shifting to nearby values of the energy-momentum map, under the hypothesis that the group of symmetries acts freely.     

Symbolic dynamics and Arnold diffusion

We consider hyperbolic tori of three degrees of freedom initially hyperbolic Hamiltonian systems. We prove that if the stable and unstable manifold of a hyperbolic torus intersect transversaly, then there exists a hyperbolic invariant set near a homoclinic orbit on which the dynamics is conjugated to a Bernoulli shift. The proof is based on a new geometrico-dynamical feature of partially hyperbolic systems, the transversality-torsion phenomenon, which produces complete hyperbolicity from partial hyperbolicity. We deduce the existence of infinitely many hyperbolic periodic orbits near the given torus. The relevance of these results for the instability of near-integrable Hamiltonian systems is then discussed. For a given transition chain, we construct chain of hyperbolic periodic orbits. Then we easily prove the existence of periodic orbits of arbitrarily high period close to such chain using standard results on hyperbolic sets.     

Index estimates for strongly indefinite functionals, periodic orbits and homoclinic solutions of first order Hamiltonian systems

We improve Benci and Rabinowitz's Linking theorem for strongly indefinite functionals, giving estimates for a suitably defined relative Morse index of critical points. Such abstract result is applied to the existence problem of periodic orbits and homoclinic solutions of first order Hamiltonian systems in cases where the Palais-Smale condition does not hold. Received January 27, 1999 / Accepted January 14, 2000 / Published online July 20, 2000     

Systematic Computer Assisted Proofs of periodic orbits of Hamiltonian systems

The numerical study of Dynamical Systems leads to obtain invariant objects of the systems such as periodic orbits, invariant tori, attractors and so on, that helps to the global understanding of the problem. In this paper we focus on the rigorous computation of periodic orbits and their distribution on the phase space, which configures the so called skeleton of the system. We use Computer Assisted Proof techniques to make a rigorous proof of the existence and the stability of families of periodic orbits in two-degrees of freedom Hamiltonian systems, which provide rigorous skeletons of periodic orbits. To that goal we show how to prove the existence and stability of a huge set of discrete initial conditions of periodic orbits, and later, how to prove the existence and stability of continuous families of periodic orbits. We illustrate the approach with two paradigmatic problems: the Hénon–Heiles Hamiltonian and the Diamagnetic Kepler problem.     

Numerical Continuation of Hamiltonian Relative Periodic Orbits

The bifurcation theory and numerics of periodic orbits of general dynamical systems is well developed, and in recent years, there has been rapid progress in the development of a bifurcation theory for dynamical systems with structure, such as symmetry or symplecticity. But as yet, there are few results on the numerical computation of those bifurcations. The methods we present in this paper are a first step toward a systematic numerical analysis of generic bifurcations of Hamiltonian symmetric periodic orbits and relative periodic orbits (RPOs). First, we show how to numerically exploit spatio-temporal symmetries of Hamiltonian periodic orbits. Then we describe a general method for the numerical computation of RPOs persisting from periodic orbits in a symmetry breaking bifurcation. Finally, we present an algorithm for the numerical continuation of non-degenerate Hamiltonian relative periodic orbits with regular drift-momentum pair. Our path following algorithm is based on a multiple shooting algorithm for the numerical computation of periodic orbits via an adaptive Poincaré section and a tangential continuation method with implicit reparametrization. We apply our methods to continue the famous figure eight choreography of the three-body system. We find a relative period doubling bifurcation of the planar rotating eight family and compute the rotating choreographies bifurcating from it.      

On homoclinic bifurcation emanating from Takens-Bogdanov points in Hamiltonian systems

The paper is devoted to studying the bifurcation of periodic and homoclinic orbits in a 2n-dimensional Hamiltonian system with 1 parameter from a TB-point (Hamiltonian saddle node). In addition to the proof of existence, the paper gives an expansion formula of the bifurcating homoclinic orbits. With the help of center manifold reduction and a blow up transformation, the problem is focused on studying a planar Hamiltonian system, the proof for the perturbed homoclinic and periodic orbits is elementary in the sense that it uses only implicit function arguments. Two applications to travelling waves in PDEs are shown.     

Existence of periodic orbits and chaos in a class of three-dimensional piecewise linear systems with two virtual stable node-foci

In this paper, we consider a new class of piecewise linear (PWL) systems with two virtual stable node-foci (the meaning of “virtual” is from Bernardo et al. (2008)) which exhibits periodic orbits and chaos. This fact that PWL systems have no unstable equilibria but has chaos will unavoidably make the exploration of this chaos more complicated. Particular values for bifurcation diagram are provided. Based on mathematical analysis and Poincaré map, periodic orbits of this kind of system without unstable equilibrium points are derived, the corresponding existence theorems are given, and the obtained results are applied to specific examples.     

A Hartman-Grobman result for retarded functional differential equations with an application to the numerics around hyperbolic equilibria

A weak form of the Hartman-Grobman theorem for retarded functional differential equations around hyperbolic equilibria is presented. Orbits on a center-unstable manifold are compared to orbits on a center-unstable subspace of the linearized equation. The result is applied to obtain a conjugacy between the semidynamical system generated by the functional differential equation and its numerical approximation. A version of the Hartman-Grobman theorem around hyperbolic periodic orbits of functional differential equations is also given.