Generic Nekhoroshev theory without small divisors (Q442128)

The authors of this paper present a new approach to Nekhoroshev's theory for a generic unperturbed Hamiltonian that completely avoids small divisor problems. The goal of the paper is to extend the methods and results of Lochak to a generic set of integrable Hamiltonians. Lochak's results applied only to unperturbed Hamiltonians that are strictly quasi-convex. Here the authors analyze the dynamics in the neighborhood of suitable resonances of any multiplicity by using successive averaging along periodic orbits together with Dirichlet's theorem on simultaneous Diophantine approximation. This leads to exponential estimates of stability for perturbation of generic integrable Hamiltonians. The analytic part of the authors' proof of Nekhoroshev's estimates is classical one-phase averaging, while the geometric part uses Dirichlet's theorem along each solution in a novel way. The authors also suggest several other problems to which their method should apply. These include, for example, the study of elliptic fixed points and large or infinite-dimensional Hamiltonian systems.