Homoclinic, heteroclinic, and periodic orbits for a class of indefinite Hamiltonian systems (Q1060877)

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Homoclinic, heteroclinic, and periodic orbits for a class of indefinite Hamiltonian systems
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    Homoclinic, heteroclinic, and periodic orbits for a class of indefinite Hamiltonian systems (English)
    Consider the Hamiltonian system in Euclidian n-space E with inner product \((, )\) given by the Hamiltonian function on \(E\times E:\) \(H(p,q)=1/2(Sp,p)+V(q)\), where S is a symmetric linear operator with one negative and n-1 positive eigenvalues. The potential V is assumed to satisfy the following conditions: \(V\in C^ 3(E,{\mathbb{R}})\) and there is a closed, bounded convex set \(C\subset E\) which is the closure of a component of the set \(\{q\in E:V(q)>0\}\), and which has the following property: if \(q\in \partial C\), and V'(q)\(\neq 0\) and \((SV'(q),V'(q))=0\) then \((V''(q)SV'(q),SV'(q))<0\). Moreover, if \(q\in \partial C\) and \(V'(q)=0\), \(\Sigma =\{q\in E:\) \((S^{-1}q,q)<0\}\) then \(C-\{q\}\subset q+\Sigma\), and \(V(q)>0\) for all \(q\in int(C).\) It is shown: (I) If V'(q)\(\neq 0\) for \(q\in \partial C\) then there exists a periodic orbit, (II) If there exists a unique point \(a\in \partial C\) with \(V'(a)=0\) then there exists a homoclinic orbit with q(t)\(\to a\), p(t)\(\to 0\) (\(| t| \to \infty)\). (III) If there exist exactly two points a,b\(\in \partial C\) with \(V'(a)=V'(b)=0\) then there exists a heteroclinic orbit with q(t)\(\to a\) \((t\to -\infty),\) q(t)\(\to b\) \((t\to +\infty),\) p(t)\(\to 0\) (\(| t| \to \infty).\) The main idea of the proofs is a monotonicity property of the orbits. The set \(\Sigma\) defined above is the disjoint union of two open cones, the closure of one of them is taken to define a partial ordering in E. Then for any orbit in the energy surface \(H=0\) with q(t)\(\in int(C)\) this projection q(t) is strictly monotonic. Such indefinite Hamiltonian systems are observed in some nonlinear mechanics arising from problems in modelling nonlinear water waves.
    existence of periodic orbit
    existence of homoclinic orbit
    existence of heteroclinic orbit
    Euclidian n-space
    inner product
    symmetric linear operator
    monotonicity property of the orbits
    partial ordering
    indefinite Hamiltonian systems
    nonlinear water waves