Non-linear diffusion in Hamiltonian systems exhibiting chaotic motion

Abstract

The exact evolution equation for the angle averaged phase space density in action-angle space is derived from the Liouville equation using projection operator techniques. This equation involves a correlation function of the initial value of the phase space density with the angle dependent part of the Hamiltonian and a correlation function of the angle dependent part of the Hamiltonian and a correlation function of the angle dependent part of the Hamiltonian with itself. Each of these correlation functions develops in time with angle projected dynamics. We show their relation to the correlation functions which develop in time with usual Hamiltonian dynamics. These correlation functions are then studied in the standard model of Chirikov, and we conclude that they behave as e -σt cos(Ωt + φ) in regions of irregular motion. We conjecture that angle averaged correlation functions behave this way in general, and we give an argument based on the mixing property of the Hamiltonian system. Our argument goes beyond the usual mixing, so we regard it as a quasi-mixing hypothesis. Under this hypothesis the equation for the angle averaged phase space density becomes a diffusion equation which incorporates much of the non-linear dynamics of Hamiltonian systems exhibiting chaotic motion.