502 research outputs found
Global Dynamics in Galactic Triaxial Systems I
In this paper we present a theoretical analysis of the global dynamics in a
triaxial galactic system using a 3D integrable Hamiltonian as a simple
representation. We include a thorough discussion on the effect of adding a
generic non--integrable perturbation to the global dynamics of the system. We
adopt the triaxial Stackel Hamiltonian as the integrable model and compute its
resonance structure in order to understand its global dynamics when a
perturbation is introduced. Also do we take profit of this example in order to
provide a theoretical discussion about diffussive processes taking place in
phase space.Comment: Accepted A&
Chaotic Diffusion in the Gliese-876 Planetary System
Chaotic diffusion is supposed to be responsible for orbital instabilities in
planetary systems after the dissipation of the protoplanetary disk, and a
natural consequence of irregular motion. In this paper we show that resonant
multi-planetary systems, despite being highly chaotic, not necessarily exhibit
significant diffusion in phase space, and may still survive virtually unchanged
over timescales comparable to their age.Using the GJ-876 system as an example,
we analyze the chaotic diffusion of the outermost (and less massive) planet. We
construct a set of stability maps in the surrounding regions of the Laplace
resonance. We numerically integrate ensembles of close initial conditions,
compute Poincar\'e maps and estimate the chaotic diffusion present in this
system. Our results show that, the Laplace resonance contains two different
regions: an inner domain characterized by low chaoticity and slow diffusion,
and an outer one displaying larger values of dynamical indicators. In the outer
resonant domain, the stochastic borders of the Laplace resonance seem to
prevent the complete destruction of the system. We characterize the diffusion
for small ensembles along the parameters of the outermost planet. Finally, we
perform a stability analysis of the inherent chaotic, albeit stable Laplace
resonance, by linking the behavior of the resonant variables of the
configurations to the different sub-structures inside the three-body resonance.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRA
Testing the accuracy of the overlap criterion
Here we investigate the accuracy of the overlap criterion when applied to a
simple near-integrable model in both its 2D and 3D version. To this end, we
consider respectively, two and three quartic oscillators as the unperturbed
system, and couple the degrees of freedom by a cubic, non-integrable
perturbation. For both systems we compute the unperturbed resonances up to
order O(\epsilon^2), and model each resonance by means of the pendulum
approximation in order to estimate the theoretical critical value of the
perturbation parameter for a global transition to chaos. We perform several
surface of sections for the bidimensional case to derive an empirical value to
be compared to our theoretical estimation, being both in good agreement. Also
for the 3D case a numerical estimate is attained that we observe matches the
critical value resulting from theoretical means. This confirms once again that
reckoning resonances up to O(\epsilon^2) suffices in order the overlap
criterion to work out.
Keywords: {Chaos -- Resonances -- Theoretical and Numerical Methods}Comment: 16 page
Stochastic approach to diffusion inside the chaotic layer of a resonance
We model chaotic diffusion, in a symplectic 4D map by using the result of a
theorem that was developed for stochastically perturbed integrable Hamiltonian
systems. We explicitly consider a map defined by a free rotator (FR) coupled to
a standard map (SM). We focus in the diffusion process in the action, , of
the FR, obtaining a semi--numerical method to compute the diffusion
coefficient. We study two cases corresponding to a thick and a thin chaotic
layer in the SM phase space and we discuss a related conjecture stated in the
past. In the first case the numerically computed probability density function
for the action is well interpolated by the solution of a Fokker-Planck
(F-P) equation, whereas it presents a non--constant time delay respect to the
concomitant F-P solution in the second case suggesting the presence of an
anomalous diffusion time scale. The explicit calculation of a diffusion
coefficient for a 4D symplectic map can be useful to understand the slow
diffusion observed in Celestial Mechanics and Accelerator Physics.Comment: This is the author's version of a work that was submitted to Physical
Review E (http://pre.aps.org
Chirikov and Nekhoroshev diffusion estimates: bridging the two sides of the river
We present theoretical and numerical results pointing towards a strong
connection between the estimates for the diffusion rate along simple resonances
in multidimensional nonlinear Hamiltonian systems that can be obtained using
the heuristic theory of Chirikov and a more formal one due to Nekhoroshev. We
show that, despite a wide-spread impression, the two theories are complementary
rather than antagonist. Indeed, although Chirikov's 1979 review has thousands
of citations, almost all of them refer to topics such as the resonance overlap
criterion, fast diffusion, the Standard or Whisker Map, and not to the
constructive theory providing a formula to measure diffusion along a single
resonance. However, as will be demonstrated explicitly below, Chirikov's
formula provides values of the diffusion coefficient which are quite well
comparable to the numerically computed ones, provided that it is implemented on
the so-called optimal normal form derived as in the analytic part of
Nekhoroshev's theorem. On the other hand, Chirikov's formula yields unrealistic
values of the diffusion coefficient, in particular for very small values of the
perturbation, when used in the original Hamiltonian instead of the optimal
normal form. In the present paper, we take advantage of this complementarity in
order to obtain accurate theoretical predictions for the local value of the
diffusion coefficient along a resonance in a specific 3DoF nearly integrable
Hamiltonian system. Besides, we compute numerically the diffusion coefficient
and a full comparison of all estimates is made for ten values of the
perturbation parameter, showing a very satisfactory agreement.Comment: 25 pages, 9 figures. NOTICE: this is the author's version of a work
that was accepted for publication in Physica D. Changes resulting from the
publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural
formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this
document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for
publicatio
On the relevance of chaos for halo stars in the Solar Neighbourhood
We show that diffusion due to chaotic mixing in the Neighbourhood of the Sun
may not be as relevant as previously suggested in erasing phase space
signatures of past Galactic accretion events. For this purpose, we analyse
Solar Neighbourhood-like volumes extracted from cosmological simulations that
naturally account for chaotic orbital behaviour induced by the strongly
triaxial and cuspy shape of the resulting dark matter haloes, among other
factors. In the approximation of an analytical static triaxial model, our
results show that a large fraction of stellar halo particles in such local
volumes have chaos onset times (i.e., the timescale at which stars commonly
associated with chaotic orbits will exhibit their chaotic behaviour)
significantly larger than a Hubble time. Furthermore, particles that do present
a chaotic behaviour within a Hubble time do not exhibit significant diffusion
in phase space.Comment: 20 pages, 16 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA
Mouse tracking to explore motor inhibition processes in go/no-go and stop signal tasks
Response inhibition relies on both proactive and reactive mechanisms that exert a synergic control on goal-directed actions. It is typically evaluated by the go/no-go (GNG) and the stop signal task (SST) with response recording based on the key-press method. However, the analysis of discrete variables (i.e., present or absent responses) registered by key-press could be insufficient to capture dynamic aspects of inhibitory control. Trying to overcome this limitation, in the present study we used a mouse tracking procedure to characterize movement profiles related to proactive and reactive inhibition. A total of fifty-three participants performed a cued GNG and an SST. The cued GNG mainly involves proactive control whereas the reactive component is mainly engaged in the SST. We evaluated the velocity profile from mouse trajectories both for responses obtained in the Go conditions and for inhibitory failures. Movements were classified as one-shot when no corrections were observed. Multi-peaked velocity profiles were classified as non-one-shot. A higher proportion of one-shot movements was found in the SST compared to the cued GNG when subjects failed to inhibit responses. This result suggests that proactive control may be responsible for unsmooth profiles in inhibition failures, supporting a differentiation between these tasks
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