Cantor set structures in the singularities of classical potential scattering

Abstract

A classical mechanical system is analysed which exhibits complicated scattering behaviour. In the set of all incoming asymptotes there is a fractal subset on which the scattering angle is singular. Though in the complement of this Cantor set the deflection function is regular, one can choose impact parameter intervals leading to arbitrarily complicated trajectories. The authors show how the complicated scattering behaviour is caused by unstable periodic orbits having homoclinic and heteroclinic connections. Thereby a hyperbolic invariant set is created leading to horseshoe chaos in the flow. This invariant set contains infinitely many unstable localised orbits (periodic and aperiodic ones). The stable manifolds of these orbits reach out into the asymptotic region and create the singularities of the scattering function.