Transversality of homoclinic orbits to hyberbolic equilibria in a Hamiltonian system, via the Hamilton-Jacobi equation

Abstract

We consider a Hamiltonian system with 2 degrees of freedom, with a hyperbolic equilibrium point having a loop or homoclinic orbit (or, alternatively, two hyperbolic equilibrium points connected by a heteroclinic orbit), as a step towards understanding the behavior of nearly-integrable Hamiltonians near double resonances. We provide a constructive approach to study whether the unstable and stable invariant manifolds of the hyperbolic point intersect transversely along the loop, inside their common energy level. For the system considered, we establish a necessary and suffcient condition for the transversality, in terms of a Riccati equation whose solutions give the slope of the invariant manifolds in a direction transverse to the loop.