Bifurcations and safe regions in open Hamiltonians

By using different recent state-of-the-art numerical techniques, such as the OFLI2 chaos indicator and a systematic search of symmetric periodic orbits, we get an insight into the dynamics of open Hamiltonians. We have found that this kind of system has safe bounded regular regions inside the escape region that have significant size and that can be located with precision. Therefore, it is possible to find regions of nonzero measure with stable periodic or quasi-periodic orbits far from the last KAM tori and far from the escape energy. This finding has been possible after a careful combination of a precise 'skeleton' of periodic orbits and a 2D plate of the OFLI2 chaos indicator to locate saddle-node bifurcations and the regular regions near them. Besides, these two techniques permit one to classify the different kinds of orbits that appear in Hamiltonian systems with escapes and provide information about the bifurcations of the families of periodic orbits, obtaining special cases of bifurcations for the different symmetries of the systems. Moreover, the skeleton of periodic orbits also gives the organizing set of the escape basin's geometry. As a paradigmatic example, we study in detail the Hénon–Heiles Hamiltonian, and more briefly the Barbanis potential and a galactic Hamiltonian.