Revealing the phase space structure of Hamiltonian systems using the action

Abstract

In this work, we analyse the properties of the Maupertuis' action as a tool to reveal the phase space structure for Hamiltonian systems. We construct a scalar field with the action's values along the trajectories in the phase space. The different behaviour of the trajectories around important phase space objects like unstable periodic orbits, their stable and unstable manifolds, and KAM islands generate characteristic patterns on the scalar field constructed with the action. Using these different patterns is possible to identify the skeleton of the phase space and understand the dynamics. Also, we present a simple argument based on the conservation of the energy and the behaviour of the trajectories to understand the values of their actions. In order to show how this tool reveals the phase space structures and its effectiveness, we compare the scalar field constructed with the actions with Poincare maps for the same set of initial conditions in the phase space of an open Hamiltonian system with 2 degrees of freedom.

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