Definite paths and upper bounds on regular regions of velocity phase space

Hamilton's principle states that the path integral of the Langrangian is stationary with respect to variations of a classical path. It does not distinguish between a local minimum, a local maximum or a saddle point in path space. A simple algorithm is devised which provides strict and useful upper bounds on the region of velocity phase space occupied by paths that are either local maxima or local minima. The technique is illustrated graphically for the standard map. It is found that the bounds provide accurate numerical upper estimates for the region of velocity phase space filled by the rotational KAM surfaces at arbitrarily chosen values of the perturbation parameter.