Exponentially small splitting of separatrices beyond Melnikov analysis: rigorous results

We study the problem of exponentially small splitting of separatrices of one degree of freedom classical Hamiltonian systems with a non-autonomous perturbation fast and periodic in time. We provide a result valid for general systems which are algebraic or trigonometric polynomials in the state variables. It consists on obtaining a rigorous proof of the asymptotic formula for the measure of the splitting. We obtain that the splitting has the asymptotic behavior $K \varepsilon^{\beta} \text{e}^{-a/\varepsilon}$, identifying the constants $K,\beta,a$ in terms of the system features. We consider several cases. In some cases, assuming the perturbation is small enough, the values of $K,\beta$ coincide with the classical Melnikov approach. We identify the limit size of the perturbation for which this theory holds true. However for the limit cases, which appear naturally both in averaging and bifurcation theories, we encounter that, generically, $K$ and $\beta$ are not well predicted by Melnikov theory

A degenerate Arnold diffusion mechanism in the Restricted 3 Body Problem

A major question in dynamical systems is to understand the mechanisms driving global instability in the 3 Body Problem (3BP), which models the motion of three bodies under Newtonian gravitational interaction. The 3BP is called restricted if one of the bodies has zero mass and the other two, the primaries, have strictly positive masses $m_0,m_1$. We consider the Restricted Planar Elliptic 3 Body Problem (RPE3BP) where the primaries revolve in Keplerian ellipses. We prove that the RPE3BP exhibits topological instability: for any values of the masses $m_0,m_1$ (except $m_0=m_1$), we build orbits along which the angular momentum of the massless body experiences an arbitrarily large variation provided the eccentricity of the orbit of the primaries is positive but small enough. In order to prove this result we show that a degenerate Arnold Diffusion Mechanism, which moreover involves exponentially small phenomena, takes place in the RPE3BP. Our work extends the result obtained in \cite{MR3927089} for the a priori unstable case $m_1/m_0\ll1$, to the case of arbitrary masses $m_0,m_1>0$, where the model displays features of the so-called \textit{a priori stable} setting