The Lyapunov exponents and the neighbourhood of periodic orbits

Abstract

We show that the Lyapunov exponents of a periodic orbit can be easily obtained from the eigenvalues of the monodromy matrix. It turns out that the Lyapunov exponents of simply stable periodic orbits are all zero, simply unstable periodic orbits have only one positive Lyapunov exponent, doubly unstable periodic orbits have two different positive Lyapunov exponents and the two positive Lyapunov exponents of complex unstable periodic orbits are equal. We present a numerical example for periodic orbits in a realistic galactic potential. Moreover, the center manifold theorem allowed us to show that stable, simply unstable and doubly unstable periodic orbits are the mothers of families of, respectively, regular, partially and fully chaotic orbits in their neighbourhood.