The Classical Action as a Tool to Visualise the Phase Space of Hamiltonian Systems

Abstract

In this paper, we analyse the classical action as a tool to reveal the phase space structure of Hamiltonian systems simply and intuitively. We construct a scalar field using the values of the action along the trajectories to analyse the phase space. The different behaviours of the trajectories around important geometrical objects like normally hyperbolic invariant manifolds, their stable and unstable manifolds, and KAM structures generate characteristic patterns in the scalar field generated by the action. Also, we present a simple argument based on the conservation of energy and the behaviour of the trajectories to understand the origin of the patterns in this scalar field. As examples, we study the phase space of open Hamiltonian systems with two and three degrees of freedom.