On non-measurable sets and invariant tori (Q1610053)

The paper is a nice example on how to combine techniques typical of a certain field of mathematics to aswer concrete questions in another field. Using the axiom of choice and the concept of non-measurable sets, the authors give an elegant proof of the fact that the set of points initiating a different trajectory on a single irrational (i.e. quasi-periodic) torus in an Hamiltonian system with two degrees of freedom is non-measurable. This means that is not possible to determine how many different trajectories there are on a single irrational torus. In the case of a rational torus, this set is countable but measurable.