Angular maps for visualizing rotational dynamics

Abstract

We develop and analyze angular maps as a numerical tool for visualizing and detecting rotational dynamics in nonlinear, nonautonomous dynamical systems in discrete and continuous time. An angular map assigns to each initial point the angular spectrum of the variational equation along the corresponding trajectory. This spectrum describes the long-time average rotation of subspaces transported by the linearized dynamics, measured by maximal principal angles. Building on the theory of angular spectra, we develop efficient numerical algorithms based on forward and backward subspace iteration. We prove that these algorithms asymptotically provide angular spectral values for subspaces that are dominant in either forward or backward time. Applications to Hénon maps, a planar flow, and the Lorenz system illustrate how angular maps reveal rotational features across phase space. For continuous-time systems, we prove that suitably rescaled angular spectra of exact time-step maps converge to the continuous angular spectrum in the Hausdorff metric as the step size tends to zero. For autonomous systems, we also justify a simplified algorithm that uses successive trajectory points to approximate the angular range associated with the flow direction.