Non-integrability of the degenerate cases of the swinging Atwood's machine using higher order variational equations (Q628753)

The Swinging Atwood's Machine is a two-degrees-of-freedom Hamiltonian system derived from the well known simple Atwood's machine [see \textit{O. Pujol, J. P. Pérez, J. P. Ramis, C. Simó, S. Simon} and \textit{J. A. Weil}, Physica D 239, No. 12, 1067--1081 (2010; Zbl 1189.37041)]. By using the differential Galois theory involving higher order variational equations (\(VE_k\)) it is proved the non-integrability of this dynamical system for values of the parameter which can not be decided using the first order variational equations (\(VE_1\)).