Distribution of periodic orbits and the homoclinic tangle (Q1363515)

It has previously been observed that a remarkable degree of order can be detected in the distribution of periodic orbits of certain autonomous Hamiltonian systems. In the present paper, the authors wish to come to a more complete description of such features by making a detailed numerical investigation of a sample Hamiltonian system with two degrees of freedom. They take a Hamiltonian of the form \(H = {1 \over 2} (\dot{x}^2 + \dot{y}^2 + Ax^2 + By^2)-\varepsilon xy^2\), for specific values of the energy and the constants \(A\) and \(B\), and for a range of values of the perturbation parameter \(\varepsilon\). The symmetry of \(H\) with respect to the \(x\)-axis is essential and the distribution of periodic orbits is studied by looking at intersections with the \((x,\dot{x})\) plane (for \(\dot{y}>0\)). Regular periodic orbits are those which bifurcate from the periodic orbit of the unperturbed problem. It is explained how the line patterns which can be observed in the Poincaré section, arise from such orbits with rotation numbers forming Farey trees. Irregular periodic orbits do not belong to Farey trees; they appear abruptly, in pairs. Some of them can lie on lines of regular orbits as well. New lines, however, composed mainly by irregular periodic orbits, appear near the three points of an unstable periodic 3 orbit and at the boundary of islands of stability around a stable periodic 3 orbit. They appear to be formed as iterates of the \(x\)-axis and approach the asymptotic curves of the unstable period 3 points. Regular periodic orbits are found inside the homoclinic tangle. Irregular periodic orbits, on the other hand, can be found inside the lobes of the asymptotic curves, and these can even be stable. The authors conjecture that, conversely, all irregular periodic orbits belong to lobes.