Quasi-periodic motions in dynamical systems. Review of a renormalisation group approach

Power series expansions naturally arise whenever solutions of ordinary differential equations are studied in the regime of perturbation theory. In the case of quasi-periodic solutions the issue of convergence of the series is plagued of the so-called small divisor problem. In this paper we review a method recently introduced to deal with such a problem, based on renormalisation group ideas and multiscale techniques. Applications to both quasi-integrable Hamiltonian systems (KAM theory) and non-Hamiltonian dissipative systems are discussed. The method is also suited to situations in which the perturbation series diverges and a resummation procedure can be envisaged, leading to a solution which is not analytic in the perturbation parameter: we consider explicitly examples of solutions which are only infinitely differentiable in the perturbation parameter, or even defined on a Cantor set.Comment: 36 pages, 8 figures, review articl

Bryuno Function and the Standard Map

For the standard map the homotopically non-trivial invariant curves of rotation number satisfying the Bryuno condition are shown to be analytic in the perturbative parameter, provided the latter is small enough. The radius of convergence of the Lindstedt series -- sometimes called critical function of the standard map -- is studied and the relation with the Bryuno function is derived: the logarithm of the radius of convergence plus twice the Bryuno function is proved to be bounded (from below and from above) uniformily in the rotation number.Comment: 120 K, Latex, 33 page

Large deviation rule for Anosov flows

The volume contraction in dissipative reversible transitive Anosov flows obeys a large deviation rule (fluctuation theorem).Comment: See instruction at the beginning of the tex file, in order to obatin the (two) postscript figures. The file is in Plain Te

Conservation of resonant periodic solutions for the one-dimensional nonlinear Schroedinger equation

We consider the one-dimensional nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation with Dirichlet boundary conditions in the fully resonant case (absence of the zero-mass term). We investigate conservation of small amplitude periodic-solutions for a large set measure of frequencies. In particular we show that there are infinitely many periodic solutions which continue the linear ones involving an arbitrary number of resonant modes, provided the corresponding frequencies are large enough and close enough to each other (wave packets with large wave number)

Response solutions for forced systems with large dissipation and arbitrary frequency vectors

We study the behaviour of one-dimensional strongly dissipative systems subject to a quasi-periodic force. In particular we are interested in the existence of response solutions, that is quasi-periodic solutions having the same frequency vector as the forcing term. Earlier results available in the literature show that, when the dissipation is large enough and a suitable function involving the forcing has a simple zero, response solutions can be proved to exist and to be attractive provided some Diophantine condition is assumed on the frequency vector. In this paper we show that the results extend to the case of arbitrary frequency vectors.Comment: 18 page

KAM theory in configuration space and cancellations in the Lindstedt series

The KAM theorem for analytic quasi-integrable anisochronous Hamiltonian systems yields that the perturbation expansion (Lindstedt series) for quasi-periodic solutions with Diophantine frequency vector converges. If one studies the Lindstedt series, one finds that convergence is ultimately related to the presence of cancellations between contributions of the same perturbation order. In turn, this is due to symmetries in the problem. Such symmetries are easily visualised in action-angle coordinates, where KAM theorem is usually formulated, by exploiting the analogy between Lindstedt series and perturbation expansions in quantum field theory and, in particular, the possibility of expressing the solutions in terms of tree graphs, which are the analogue of Feynman diagrams. If the unperturbed system is isochronous, Moser's modifying terms theorem ensures that an analytic quasi-periodic solution with the same Diophantine frequency vector as the unperturbed Hamiltonian exists for the system obtained by adding a suitable constant (counterterm) to the vector field. Also in this case, one can follow the alternative approach of studying the perturbation expansion for both the solution and the counterterm, and again convergence of the two series is obtained as a consequence of deep cancellations between contributions of the same order. We revisit Moser's theorem, by studying the perturbation expansion one obtains by working in Cartesian coordinates. We investigate the symmetries giving rise to the cancellations which makes possible the convergence of the series. We find that the cancellation mechanism works in a completely different way in Cartesian coordinates. The interpretation of the underlying symmetries in terms of tree graphs is much more subtle than in the case of action-angle coordinates.Comment: 38 pages, 18 fugure