Symmetry and resonance in Hamiltonian systems

Abstract

In this paper we study resonances in two degrees of freedom, autonomous, hamiltonian systems. Due to the presence of a symmetry condition on one of the degrees of freedom, we show that some of the resonances vanish as lower order resonances. After giving a sharp estimate of the resonance domain, we investigate this order change of resonance in a rather general potential problem with discrete symmetry and consider as an example the Henon-Heiles family of hamiltonians. We also study a classical example of a mechanical system with symmetry, the elastic pendulum, which leads to a natural hierarchy of resonances with the 4 : 1-resonance as the most prominent after the 2 : 1-resonance and which explains why the 3 : 1-resonance is neglected.