Numerical Construction of Quasi-Periodic Solutions Beyond Symplectic Integrators

TL;DR

This paper introduces a numerical method inspired by KAM theory and the CWB scheme to compute quasi-periodic solutions with minimal phase error, overcoming limitations of symplectic integrators in long-term Hamiltonian simulations.

Contribution

It develops a dimension-enlarged Newton iteration incorporating frequency updates, enabling direct computation of quasi-periodic solutions without phase-lag accumulation.

Findings

Eliminates phase-lag errors in long-term simulations

Provides a constructive alternative to global KAM methods

Achieves arbitrarily small phase errors with sufficient resources

Abstract

Symplectic integrators are the established standard for long-term simulations of nearly-integrable Hamiltonian systems due to their preservation of geometric structures. However, they suffer from an inherent limitation: secular phase-shift errors. While the qualitative ''shape'' of invariant tori is preserved, the numerical solution gradually drifts along the torus, leading to a phase-lag accumulation that degrades long-term positional accuracy. Inspired by the Craig-Wayne-Bourgain (CWB) scheme, originally developed as an analytical tool for infinite-dimensional systems, we introduce a numerical operator that incorporates frequency updates into a dimension-enlarged Newton iteration to compute quasi-periodic solutions. Unlike conventional time-stepping integrators, our alternating numerical procedure eliminates phase-lag accumulation by directly solving for instantaneous positions and phase angles. Theoretically, provided sufficient computational resources, the phase error can be reduced arbitrarily, remaining independent of the total integration time. Our algorithm translates the Nash-Moser iteration into a practical numerical framework, marking a significant departure from traditional Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser (KAM) theory. While KAM provides rigorous existence proofs, its requirement for global Diophantine conditions and the total exclusion of resonant sets render it numerically inaccessible. By employing a ''step-by-step'' exclusion process and incrementally enlarging the dimension, our algorithm resolves irrationality conditions locally. This approach demonstrates that the ''numerical irrationality problem'' is not an intrinsic barrier to computation, offering a constructive, executable alternative to the non-executable nature of global KAM-based methods.