Local Gram-Schmidt and Covariant Lyapunov Vectors and Exponents for Three Harmonic Oscillator Problems

Abstract

We compare the Gram-Schmidt and covariant phase-space-basis-vector descriptions for three time-reversible harmonic oscillator problems, in two, three, and four phase-space dimensions respectively. The two-dimensional problem can be solved analytically. The three-dimensional and four-dimensional problems studied here are simultaneously chaotic, time-reversible, and dissipative. Our treatment is intended to be pedagogical, for publication in Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Computation and for use in an updated version of our book on Time Reversibility, Computer Simulation, and Chaos. Comments are very welcome.