Helicity of adjacent phase trajectories in chaotic systems

The helicity of adjacent phase trajectories in chaotic dynamic systems may be characterized by the distribution of local angular-rotation velocities of the infinitesimal displacement vector whose evolution is determined by linearized equations of motion. This distribution is close to the distribution of local Lyapunov exponents. The simplest models show that the whirl velocity of adjacent trajectories affects the rate of mixing of dynamical variables and sensitivity of the phase trajectories to perturbations.