Regular and irregular geodesics on spherical harmonic surfaces
Dynamical Systems
2011-12-15 v1 Differential Geometry
Chaotic Dynamics
Abstract
The behavior of geodesic curves on even seemingly simple surfaces can be surprisingly complex. In this paper we use the Hamiltonian formulation of the geodesic equations to analyze their integrability properties. In particular, we examine the behavior of geodesics on surfaces defined by the spherical harmonics. Using the Morales-Ramis theorem and Kovacic algorithm we are able to prove that the geodesic equations on all surfaces defined by the sectoral harmonics are not integrable, and we use Poincar\'{e} sections to demonstrate the breakdown of regular motion.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1112.3231,
title = {Regular and irregular geodesics on spherical harmonic surfaces},
author = {Thomas J. Waters},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1112.3231},
year = {2011}
}
Comments
Accepted Physica D : Nonlinear Phenomena; 25 pages, 3 figures