Vol 21, No 6 (2016)

In this paper we give an introduction to the notion of a normally hyperbolic invariant manifold (NHIM) and its role in chemical reaction dynamics.We do this by considering simple examples for one-, two-, and three-degree-of-freedom systems where explicit calculations can be carried out for all of the relevant geometrical structures and their properties can be explicitly understood. We specifically emphasize the notion of a NHIM as a “phase space concept”. In particular, we make the observation that the (phase space) NHIM plays the role of “carrying” the (configuration space) properties of a saddle point of the potential energy surface into phase space.

We also consider an explicit example of a 2-degree-of-freedom system where a “global” dividing surface can be constructed using two index one saddles and one index two saddle. Such a dividing surface has arisen in several recent applications and, therefore, such a construction may be of wider interest.

In this paper we study noncommutative integrable systems on b-Poisson manifolds. One important source of examples (and motivation) of such systems comes from considering noncommutative systems on manifolds with boundary having the right asymptotics on the boundary. In this paper we describe this and other examples and prove an action-angle theorem for noncommutative integrable systems on a b-symplectic manifold in a neighborhood of a Liouville torus inside the critical set of the Poisson structure associated to the b-symplectic structure.

In this paper, we investigate perturbations of linear integrable Hamiltonian systems, with the aim of establishing results in the spirit of the KAM theorem (preservation of invariant tori), the Nekhoroshev theorem (stability of the action variables for a finite but long interval of time) and Arnold diffusion (instability of the action variables). Whether the frequency of the integrable system is resonant or not, it is known that the KAM theorem does not hold true for all perturbations; when the frequency is resonant, it is the Nekhoroshev theorem that does not hold true for all perturbations. Our first result deals with the resonant case: we prove a result of instability for a generic perturbation, which implies that the KAM and the Nekhoroshev theorem do not hold true even for a generic perturbation. The case where the frequency is nonresonant is more subtle. Our second result shows that for a generic perturbation the KAM theorem holds true. Concerning the Nekhrosohev theorem, it is known that one has stability over an exponentially long (with respect to some function of ε⁻¹) interval of time and that this cannot be improved for all perturbations. Our third result shows that for a generic perturbation one has stability for a doubly exponentially long interval of time. The only question left unanswered is whether one has instability for a generic perturbation (necessarily after this very long interval of time).

We consider Hamiltonian systems on (T*ℝ², dq ∧ dp) defined by a Hamiltonian function H of the “classical” form H = p²/2 + V(q). A reasonable decay assumption V(q) → 0, ‖q‖ → ∞, allows one to compare a given distribution of initial conditions at t = −∞ with their final distribution at t = +∞. To describe this Knauf introduced a topological invariant deg(E), which, for a nontrapping energy E > 0, is given by the degree of the scattering map. For rotationally symmetric potentials V(q) = W(‖q‖), scattering monodromy has been introduced independently as another topological invariant. In the present paper we demonstrate that, in the rotationally symmetric case, Knauf’s degree deg(E) and scattering monodromy are related to one another. Specifically, we show that scattering monodromy is given by the jump of the degree deg(E), which appears when the nontrapping energy E goes from low to high values.

Using the hyperbolic circular billiard, introduced in [31] by Delos et al. as possibly the simplest system with Hamiltonian monodromy, we illustrate the method developed by N. N. Nekhoroshev and coauthors [48] to uncover this phenomenon. Nekhoroshev’s very original geometric approach reflects his profound insight into Hamiltonian monodromy as a general topological property of fibrations. We take advantage of the possibility of having closed form elementary function expressions for all quantities in our system in order to provide the most explicit and detailed explanation of Hamiltonian monodromy and its relation to similar phenomena in other domains.