Symmetry reduction by lifting for maps

Abstract

We study diffeomorphisms that have one-parameter families of continuous symmetries. For general maps, in contrast to the symplectic case, the existence of a symmetry no longer implies the existence of an invariant. Conversely, a map with an invariant need not have a symmetry. We show that when a symmetry flow has a global Poincaré section there are coordinates in which the map takes a reduced, skew-product form, and hence allows for reduction of dimensionality. We show that the reduction of a volume-preserving map again is volume preserving. Finally we sharpen the Noether theorem for symplectic maps. A number of illustrative examples are discussed and the method is compared with traditional reduction techniques.