The restricted planar elliptic three body problem (RPETBP) describes the motion of a massless particle (a comet or an asteroid) under the gravitational field of two massive bodies (the primaries, say the Sun and Jupiter) revolving around their center of mass on elliptic orbits with some positive eccentricity. The aim of this paper is to show the existence of orbits whose angular momentum performs arbitrary excursions in a large region. In particular, there exist diffusive orbits, that is, with a large variation of angular momentum. The leading idea of the proof consists in analyzing parabolic motions of the comet. By a well-known result of McGehee, the union of future (resp. past) parabolic orbits is an analytic manifold $${\mathcal{P}^+}$$
 (resp. $${\mathcal{P}^-}$$
 ). In a properly chosen coordinate system these manifolds are stable (resp. unstable) manifolds of a manifold at infinity $${\mathcal{P}_\infty}$$
 , which we call the manifold at parabolic infinity. On $${\mathcal{P}_\infty}$$
 it is possible to define two scattering maps, which contain the map structure of the homoclinic trajectories to it, i.e. orbits parabolic both in the future and the past. Since the inner dynamics inside $${\mathcal{P}_\infty}$$
 is trivial, two different scattering maps are used. The combination of these two scattering maps permits the design of the desired diffusive pseudo-orbits. Using shadowing techniques and these pseudo orbits we show the existence of true trajectories of the RPETBP whose angular momentum varies in any predetermined fashion.

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Global Instability in the Restricted Planar Elliptic Three Body Problem

Let S be a finite union of (pairwise disjoint but possibly knotted and linked) closed curves and tubes in the round sphere S^3 or in the flat torus T^3. In the case of the torus, S is further assumed to be contained in a contractible subset of T^3. In this paper we show that for any sufficiently large odd integer \lambda there exists a Beltrami field on S^3 or T^3 satisfying curl u = \lambda u and with a collection of vortex lines and vortex tubes given by S, up to an ambient diffeomorphism.

Knotted structures in high-energy Beltrami fields on the torus and the sphere

We prove the existence of knotted and linked thin vortex tubes for steady solutions to the incompressible Euler equation in R^3. More precisely, given a finite collection of (possibly linked and knotted) disjoint thin tubes in R^3, we show that they can be transformed with a C^m-small diffeomorphism into a set of vortex tubes of a Beltrami field that tends to zero at infinity. The structure of the vortex lines in the tubes is extremely rich, presenting a positive-measure set of invariant tori and infinitely many periodic vortex lines. The problem of the existence of steady knotted vortex tubes can be traced back to Lord Kelvin.

Existence of knotted vortex tubes in steady Euler flows

In this article we introduce and analyze in detail singular contact structures, with an emphasis on $b^m$-contact structures, which are tangent to a given smooth hypersurface $Z$ and satisfy certain transversality conditions. These singular contact structures are determined by the kernel of non-smooth differential forms, called $b^m$-contact forms, having an associated critical hypersurface $Z$. We provide several constructions, prove local normal forms, and study the induced structure on the critical hypersurface. The topology of those are related to smooth contact structures through a desingularization technique. The problem of existence of $b^m$-contact structures on a given manifold is also tackled in this paper. We prove that a connected component of a convex hypersurface of a contact manifold can be realized as a connected component of the critical set of a $b^m$-contact structure.

The geometry and topology of contact structures with singularities

In this paper, we study the global dynamics of a class of nonlinear Schr\"odinger equations using perturbative and non-perturbative methods. We prove the semi-global existence of solutions for initial conditions close to constant. That is, solutions will exist for all positive time or all negative time. The existence of an open set of initial data which limits to zero in both forward and backward time is also demonstrated. This result in turn forces the non-existence of any real-analytic conserved quantities. For the quadratic case, we prove the existence of two (infinite) families of nontrivial unstable equilibria and prove the existence of heteroclinic orbits limiting to the nontrivial equilibria in backward time and to zero in forward time. By a time reversal argument, we also obtain heteroclinic orbits limiting to the nontrivial equilibria in forward time and to zero in backward time. The proofs for the quadratic equation are computer-assisted and rely on three separate ingredients: an enclosure of a local unstable manifold at the equilibria, a rigorous integration of the flow (starting from the unstable manifold) and a proof that the solution enters a validated stable set (hence showing convergence to zero).

Global dynamics in nonconservative nonlinear Schr\"odinger equations

The singular Weinstein conjecture

In this paper we analyze in detail a collection of motivating examples to consider $b^m$-symplectic forms and folded-type symplectic structures. In particular, we provide models in Celestial Mechanics for every $b^m$-symplectic structure. At the end of the paper, we introduce the odd-dimensional analogue to $b$-symplectic manifolds: $b$-contact manifolds.

An Invitation to Singular Symplectic Geometry

We study singular contact structures, which are tangent to a given smooth hypersurface $Z$ and satisfy certain transversality conditions. These singular contact structures are determined by the kernel of non-smooth differential forms, called $b^m$-contact forms having an associated critical hypersurface $Z$. We provide several constructions, prove local normal forms and study the induced structure on the critical hypersurface. In the last section of this paper we tackle the problem of existence of $b^m$-contact structures on a given manifold. We prove that convex hypersurfaces can be realized as critical set of $b^{2k}$-contact structures. In particular, in the $3$-dimensional case, this construction yields the existence of a generic set of surfaces $Z$ such that the pair $(M,Z)$ is a $b^{2k}$-contact manifold and $Z$ is its critical hypersurface.

Contact structures with singularities

Motivated by Poincare's orbits going to infinity in the (restricted) three-body (see [26] and [6]), we investigate the generic existence of heteroclinic-like orbits in a neighbourhood of the critical set of a $b$-contact form. This is done by using the singular counterpart [3] of Etnyre--Ghrist's contact/Beltrami correspondence [9], and genericity results concerning eigenfunctions of the Laplacian established by Uhlenbeck [29]. Specifically, we analyze the $b$-Beltrami vector fields on $b$-manifolds of dimension $3$ and prove that for a generic asymptotically exact $b$-metric they exhibit escape orbits. We also show that a generic asymptotically symmetric $b$-Beltrami vector field on an asymptotically flat $b$-manifold has a generalized singular periodic orbit and at least $4$ escape orbits. Generalized singular periodic orbits are trajectories of the vector field whose $\alpha$- and $\omega$-limit sets intersect the critical surface. These results are a first step towards proving the singular Weinstein conjecture.

Cédric Oms

Papers

The geometry and topology of contact structures with singularities

The singular Weinstein conjecture

An Invitation to Singular Symplectic Geometry

Contact structures with singularities

On the singular Weinstein conjecture and the existence of escape orbits for $b$-Beltrami fields