A second order expansion of the separatrix map for trigonometric perturbations of a priori unstable systems (Q329601)

This is a complex and challenging paper with an expository style likely to be challenging to the reader. There are extensive internal references to both past and upcoming publications that further complicate the text. The authors' stated goal is to derive a second-order expansion of what has been called the ``separatrix map'' for a class of nearly integrable systems. The separatrix map is used to analyze the dynamics in a neighborhood of orbits homoclinic to a normally hyperbolic invariant manifold. In a following paper the authors use the results of this one to analyze global instabilities of nearly integrable Hamiltonian systems, a phenomenon generally known as Arnold diffusion. The primary purpose of the current paper is to establish certain results on the multidimensional separatrix map and to compute higher-order expansion terms with smaller remainder terms. The work is motivated by the desire to understand stochastic diffusive behavior for nearly integrable systems. Much of the authors' effort appears to be motivated by Arnold's classical example of a Hamiltonian system modeling a rotor and a pendulum with weak coupling between them. The idea of a separatrix map is first addressed in the context of a generalized version of Arnold's example with an additional perturbation by a trigonometric polynomial. In an appendix the authors return to this example to show how the results of the paper apply.