Reversors and Symmetries for Polynomial Automorphisms of the Plane

We obtain normal forms for symmetric and for reversible polynomial automorphisms (polynomial maps that have polynomial inverses) of the plane. Our normal forms are based on the generalized \Henon normal form of Friedland and Milnor. We restrict to the case that the symmetries and reversors are also polynomial automorphisms. We show that each such reversor has finite-order, and that for nontrivial, real maps, the reversor has order 2 or 4. The normal forms are shown to be unique up to finitely many choices. We investigate some of the dynamical consequences of reversibility, especially for the case that the reversor is not an involution.Comment: laTeX with 5 figures. Added new sections dealing with symmetries and an extensive discussion of the reversing symmetry group

Heteroclinic orbits and transport in a perturbed integrable Suris map

Explicit formulae are given for the saddle connection of an integrable family of standard maps studied by Y. Suris. When the map is perturbed this connection is destroyed, and we use a discrete version of Melnikov's method to give an explicit formula for the first order approximation of the area of the lobes of the resultant turnstile. These results are compared with computations of the lobe area.Comment: laTex file with 6 eps figure

Generating Forms for Exact Volume-Preserving Maps

We study the group of volume-preserving diffeomorphisms on a manifold. We develop a general theory of implicit generating forms. Our results generalize the classical formulas for generating functions of symplectic twist maps.Comment: laTeX, 20 pages, 1 figur

Transport in Transitory Dynamical Systems

We introduce the concept of a "transitory" dynamical system---one whose time-dependence is confined to a compact interval---and show how to quantify transport between two-dimensional Lagrangian coherent structures for the Hamiltonian case. This requires knowing only the "action" of relevant heteroclinic orbits at the intersection of invariant manifolds of "forward" and "backward" hyperbolic orbits. These manifolds can be easily computed by leveraging the autonomous nature of the vector fields on either side of the time-dependent transition. As illustrative examples we consider a two-dimensional fluid flow in a rotating double-gyre configuration and a simple one-and-a-half degree of freedom model of a resonant particle accelerator. We compare our results to those obtained using finite-time Lyapunov exponents and to adiabatic theory, discussing the benefits and limitations of each method.Comment: Updated and corrected version. LaTeX, 29 pages, 21 figure

Quadratic Volume-Preserving Maps: Invariant Circles and Bifurcations

We study the dynamics of the five-parameter quadratic family of volume-preserving diffeomorphisms of R^3. This family is the unfolded normal form for a bifurcation of a fixed point with a triple-one multiplier and also is the general form of a quadratic three-dimensional map with a quadratic inverse. Much of the nontrivial dynamics of this map occurs when its two fixed points are saddle-foci with intersecting two-dimensional stable and unstable manifolds that bound a spherical ``vortex-bubble''. We show that this occurs near a saddle-center-Neimark-Sacker (SCNS) bifurcation that also creates, at least in its normal form, an elliptic invariant circle. We develop a simple algorithm to accurately compute these elliptic invariant circles and their longitudinal and transverse rotation numbers and use it to study their bifurcations, classifying them by the resonances between the rotation numbers. In particular, rational values of the longitudinal rotation number are shown to give rise to a string of pearls that creates multiple copies of the original spherical structure for an iterate of the map.Comment: 53 pages, 29 figure