Horseshoes for the nearly symmetric heavy top (Q2453457)

The heavy top, i.e., a rigid body moving about a fixed point under the action of a gravitational force, is one of the most important problem of classical analytical mechanics. Generically, for a body of arbitrary shape the equations of motion are non-integrable and it is known that non-integrability does not directly means the occurence of complicated dynamics such as horseshoes and chaos. The present work proves the occurence of horseshoe dynamics in the nearly symmetric case of the heavy top using a Melnikov-type approach. For this technique, the authors define Euler angles relative to an inclined coordinate system while, from a physical point of view, the top is considered to spin about a fixed point in an inclined plane. An important result is the existence of transverse homoclinic orbits to periodic orbits on four-dimensional level sets.