A physical interpretation of the Hénon map (Q1199308)

A physical interpretation of the Hénon map has recently been pointed out by \textit{O. Biham} and \textit{W. Wenzel} [Phys. Rev.Lett. 63, 819-822 (1989)]. In this note it is shown that the orientation-preserving Hénon map carries another physical interpretation that directly addresses the dynamics: it is equivalent to the period one return map of a periodically kicked harmonic oscillator with a suitable nonlinear coupling to the kicking term. This interpretation holds for the conservative, dissipative, logistic limit (extremely dissipative) cases. After a review of the well known area-preserving case, the dissipative case is explored. So, a velocity-dependent damping term is included to provide the necessary dissipation and two one parameter ``unfolding'' of the coupling are presented, each permitting the development of a strange attractor. Related to the logistic limit it is shown to have a simple physical interpretation. In all cases explicit coordinate and parameter transformation are given relating the return map of the kicked system to a standard form of the Hénon map. For two smoothly driven versions of the dissipative case, the numerical results are presented: the first is obtained by replacing the periodic delta function forcing with a periodic train of pulses of finite width and height, and the second is obtained from truncations of the Fourier expansion of the delta function.