The evolution of periodic orbits close to heteroclinic points

Abstract

Several families of periodic orbits close to heteroclinic points were computed, and their evolution, as a function of the energy, was followed. All appeared spontaneously at the occasion of the formation of the heteroclinic points, and had no genealogical links with other families. This behavior, which confirms a prediction by Dr. Contopoulos, is in contrast to the behavior of periodic orbits close to homoclinic points, some of which have genealogical links with periodic orbits existing in the ‘quasi-integrable’ phase of the system. The orbits found here appeared in regions where stochasticity was well established; so their appearance does not seem to be connected with the onset of stochasticity.