Existence of diffusion orbits in a lattice system (Q2376644)

The author proposes to study diffusion in Hamiltonian partial differential equations by looking at lattice systems as discretizations. In particular, he considers the model \[ H(x,p,t)= {1\over 2} \sum^N_{i=1} p^2_i+ \sum^N_{i=1} (1-\cos(x_{i+1}- x_i))+\varepsilon F(x_1,x_2,\dots, x_N,p_1, p_2,\dots, p_N,t).\tag{\(*\)} \] The model can be thought of as \(N\) particles connected by springs and linked to form a circle. The author's main theorem is the following: Let \(B_{\varepsilon,k}\) be the ball of radius \(\varepsilon\) \((0<\varepsilon\ll L)\) centered at the origin in the function space \[ C^r(\{(x,p,t)\in \mathbb T^N\times \mathbb R^N\times \mathbb T,\,\| p\|\leq k\},\mathbb R). \] Then there is an open and dense set \(O_\varepsilon\subset B_{\varepsilon, k}\) such that for each \(F\in O_\varepsilon\), the Hamiltonian system \((*)\) has a diffusion orbit. The proof uses a variational method developed by Mather. The author proceeds by showing the existence of a normally hyperbolic invariant cylinder. Then he introduces a pseudo-connecting orbit set and uses it to prove the existence of connecting orbits from one Mañé set to another one with a different cohomology.