Poincaré's discovery of homoclinic points
type: Item
instance of: scholarly article
title: Poincaré's discovery of homoclinic points
zbMATH Open document ID: 0812.01011
DOI: 10.1007/BF00374437
author: K. G. Andersson
published in: Archive for History of Exact Sciences
publication date: 1995-01-30T00:00:00Z
review text: The author claims that the most radical break with prevailing conceptions was Poincaré's discovery of homoclinic points, which nowadays figure in studies of ``chaotic'' motions. The presence of a homoclinic point in a dynamical system complicates the orbit structure considerably and implies the existence of trajectories with quite unpredictable behaviour. Poincaré first encountered homoclinic points in 1889 in connection with his memoir for which he had been awarded a prize by the Swedish king Oscar II. The purpose of this article is to throw some light on the events connected with the memoir. The author is citing documents of the Mittag-Leffler Institute from which one can obtain a clear picture of what actually happened.
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 01A55
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 70F07
zbMATH DE Number: 714703
zbMATH Keywords: chaotic motions
zbMATH Keywords: homoclinic points
zbMATH Keywords: dynamical system
zbMATH Keywords: trajectories
MaRDI profile type: Publication
cites work: Q5518129
description: scientific article; zbMATH DE number 714703