Systems of Transversal Sections Near Critical Energy Levels of Hamiltonian Systems in $\mathbb {R}^4$

Book excerpt: In this article the authors study Hamiltonian flows associated to smooth functions R R restricted to energy levels close to critical levels. They assume the existence of a saddle-center equilibrium point in the zero energy level . The Hamiltonian function near is assumed to satisfy Moser's normal form and is assumed to lie in a strictly convex singular subset of . Then for all small, the energy level contains a subset near , diffeomorphic to the closed -ball, which admits a system of transversal sections , called a foliation. is a singular foliation of and contains two periodic orbits and as binding orbits. is the Lyapunoff orbit lying in the center manifold of , has Conley-Zehnder index and spans two rigid planes in . has Conley-Zehnder index and spans a one parameter family of planes in . A rigid cylinder connecting to completes . All regular leaves are transverse to the Hamiltonian vector field. The existence of a homoclinic orbit to in follows from this foliation.