Computation of nonlinear behavior of Hamiltonian systems using Lie algebraic methods

Abstract

Lie algebraic methods are developed to describe the behavior of trajectories near a given trajectory for general Hamiltonian systems. A procedure is presented for the computation of nonlinear effects of arbitrarily high degree, and explicit formulas are given through effects of degree 5. Expected applications include accelerator design, charged particle beam and light optics, other problems in the general area of nonlinear dynamics, and, perhaps, with suitable modification, the area of S-matrix expansions in quantum field theory.