Open AccessRegular and chaotic motions of the fast rotating rigid body: a numerical study
Author(s) -
Giancarlo Benettin,
Anna Maria Cherubini,
Francesco Fassò
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
discrete and continuous dynamical systems. series b
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.864
H-Index - 53
eISSN - 1553-524X
pISSN - 1531-3492
DOI - 10.3934/dcdsb.2002.2.521
Subject(s) - physics , classical mechanics , chaotic , symmetry (geometry) , angular momentum , rigid body , unit vector , simple (philosophy) , point (geometry) , vector field , chaos (operating system) , field (mathematics) , unit (ring theory) , mathematical analysis , mathematics , geometry , mechanics , computer science , philosophy , computer security , mathematics education , epistemology , artificial intelligence , pure mathematics
We numerically investigate the dynamics of a symmetric rigid body with a fixed point in a small analytic external potential (equivalently, a fast rotating body in a given external field) in the light of previous theoretical investigations based on Nekhoroshev theory. Special attention is posed on "resonant" motions, for which the tip of the unit vector mu in the direction of the angular momentum vector can wander, for no matter how small epsilon, on an extended, essentially two-dimensional, region of the unit sphere, a phenomenon called "slow chaos". We produce numerical evidence that slow chaos actually takes place in simple cases, in agreement with the theoretical prediction. Chaos however disappears for motions near proper rotations around the symmetry axis, thus indicating that the theory of these phenomena still needs to be improved. An heuristic explanation is proposed