Heteroclinic orbits and nonintegrability in two-degree-of-freedom Hamiltonian systems with saddle-centers (Q2330820)

In [\textit{J. J. Morales-Ruiz} and \textit{J. M. Peris}, Ann. Fac. Sci. Toulouse, Math. (6) 8, No. 1, 125--141 (1999; Zbl 0971.34076); \textit{K. Yagasaki}, Nonlinearity 16, No. 6, 2003--2012 (2003; Zbl 1070.37038)], the authors studied the connection between non-integrability and chaos for a class of Hamiltonian systems with two degrees of freedom and with saddle centers having homoclinic orbits. It was shown that if a sufficient condition for the non-integrability of Hamiltonian systems is satisfied, then there are transverse homoclinic orbits to periodic orbits. In the present article the authors generalize the results found in [\textit{T. Sakajo} and \textit{K. Yagasaki}, J. Nonlinear Sci. 18, No. 5, 485--525 (2008; Zbl 1168.37026); \textit{K. Yagasaki} and \textit{S. Yamanaka}, J. Differ. Equations 263, No. 2, 1009--1027 (2017; Zbl 1379.37113)] for a class of Hamiltonian systems with two degrees of freedom and with saddle centers connected by heteroclinic orbits. A connection is established between the existence of transverse heteroclinic orbits and the non-integrability of Hamiltonian dynamical systems. If there are not only transverse heteroclinic orbits, but also heteroclinic cycles, then chaotic dynamics occurs and the Hamiltonian systems are not integrable. However, if transverse heteroclinic orbits exist, but heteroclinic cycles do not occur, then chaotic dynamics may not occur, and it is unclear whether the systems are non-integrable. In addition, transverse heteroclinic orbits may not exist, even if the system is not integrable. The theoretical results of the work are illustrated by an explicit example of a system and some numerical results are obtained using the AUTO computer program [\textit{E. J. Doedel} and \textit{B. E. Oldeman}, ``AUTO-07P: continuation and bifurcation software for ordinary differential equations'', (2012), \url{http://indy.cs.concordia.ca/auto}].