Exponentially small splitting for the pendulum: A classical problem revisited (Q613616)

The authors consider a rapidly forced pendulum whose equation of motion is \[ x''=\sin x +\frac{\mu}{\varepsilon^2}\sin\frac{t}{\varepsilon}, \] where \(\mu\) is a real parameter and \(\varepsilon>0\) is a small parameter. They study the exponentially small splitting of separatrices in the case of their transverse intersection. In fact, the main object of study is the measure of the lobes formed by stable and unstable separatrices. The authors establish the existence of periodic solutions (including the case where \(\mu=\varepsilon^p\) with \(p<0\)), study their hyperbolicity, and obtain exponentially small bounds for distances between stable and unstable separatrices in the cases where either \(\mu=\varepsilon^p\) with \(p<0\) or \(\mu=\mu_0-c\varepsilon^r\) with \(r\geq 2\) and \(c>0\).