Cascades of homoclinic orbits to, and chaos near, a Hamiltonian saddle- center (Q1183224)

The Hamiltonian two degrees of freedom system under investigation in this paper is modeled by \[ H={1\over 2}\omega({p_ 1}^ 2+{q_ 1}^ 2)+{1\over 2}\lambda({p_ 2}^ 2-{q_ 2}^ 2)+\alpha {q_ 1}^ 3+\beta {q_ 1}^ 2q_ 2+\gamma q_ 1{q_ 2}^ 2+\delta {q_ 2}^ 3. \] Assuming \(\delta\neq 0\) and \(\omega\lambda > 0\), rescaling permits to take \(\lambda=1\) and \(\delta={1\over 3}\). The system has a saddle-centre at the origin and, for \(\gamma=0\), a homoclinic solution. Considering \(\gamma\) as a small perturbation parameter, the authors first study homoclinic bifurcations on the zero energy surface. A Poincaré map is constructed as the composition of a Shil'nikov-type map and a global map, obtained via an excursion near the homoclinic solution. The reversibility of the system plays a crucial role in many of the subtle arguments and in fact makes the bifurcation problem in the end a codimension one phenomenon. It is shown that for each \(n\geq 2\), there is a sequence of values for \(\gamma\) (tending to zero), for which there are \(n\)-homoclinic orbits and that doubling sequences of \(2n\)-homoclinic values converge to each \(n\)-homoclinic value. Further, under some generic conditions, the existence of horseshoes is established, implying the existence of sets of \(n\)-periodic orbits and chaotic orbits. Among the applications, discussed in the final section, we find the Hénon-Heiles Hamiltonian, the orthogonal double pendulum and the plain restricted three-body problem.