Fast computation of the Maslov Index for hyperbolic linear systems with periodic coefficients
Résumé
The Maslov index is a topological property of periodic orbits of finite-dimensional Hamiltonian systems that is widely used in semiclassical quantization, quantum chaology, stability of waves and classical mechanics. The Maslov index is determined from the analysis of a linear Hamiltonian system with periodic coefficients. In this paper, a numerical scheme is devised to compute the Maslov index for hyperbolic linear systems when the phase space has a low dimension. The idea is to compute on the exterior algebra of the ambient vector space, where the Lagrangian subspace representing the unstable subspace is reduced to a line. When the exterior algebra is projectified the Lagrangian subspace always forms a closed loop. The idea is illustrated by application to Hamiltonian systems on a phase space of dimension 4. The theory is used to compute the Maslov index for the spectral problem associated with periodic solutions of the fifth-order Korteweg de Vries equation.