From Poincaré maps to Lagrangian descriptors: the case of the valley ridge inflection point potential (Q2058465)

This work presents a comparative study of the method of Lagrangian descriptors and the classical method of Poincaré maps for the purpose of visualizing the geometrical structure of the response of a dynamical system in the phase space. The method of Lagrangian descriptors is a trajectory-based technique that has the capability of capturing the geometrical structure of the phase space using the gradient of suitably defined scalar fields, thus providing a high resolution for exploring high-dimensional phase spaces with low-dimensional slices. As a test model, the authors consider a two-degree-of-freedom Hamiltonian system describing chemical reaction dynamics, defined by a potential energy surface consisting of two wells and two index-1 saddles. For this system, the authors present the computations (using the two methods) of invariant manifolds of unstable periodic orbits that are responsible for inter-well transport. The numerical results show that the method of Lagrangian descriptors is as effective as the method of Poincaré maps to study homoclinic and heteroclinic tangles, where the first method presents computational advantages regarding the calculation of eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the underlying periodic orbits.