The Legacy of the Cartwright-Littlewood Collaboration

Fuente: arXiv
Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
1. Verfasser: Guckenheimer, John
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866912418838347776
author Guckenheimer, John
author_facet Guckenheimer, John
contents Mary L. Cartwright and John E. Littlewood published a short preliminary survey in 1945 describing results of their investigation of the forced van der Pol equation \begin{equation*} \ddot{y}-k(1-y^2)\dot{y}+y = b λk \cos(λt+a) \end{equation*} in which $b,λ,k,a$ are parameters with $k$ large. Their description of dynamical behavior now known as chaos in this dissipative dynamical system was a landmark in dynamical systems theory. Littlewood's monster paper containing the details of their investigation finally appeared twelve years later in the journal Acta Mathematica. I review here the context in which Cartwright and Littlewood worked when they wrote their 1945 paper and the enduring mathematical legacy of their discoveries. I also give brief pointers to research they inspired in other application areas.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_06889
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The Legacy of the Cartwright-Littlewood Collaboration
Guckenheimer, John
Dynamical Systems
34C15, 34E13, 34E17, 37-03, 37D45, 37N20
Mary L. Cartwright and John E. Littlewood published a short preliminary survey in 1945 describing results of their investigation of the forced van der Pol equation \begin{equation*} \ddot{y}-k(1-y^2)\dot{y}+y = b λk \cos(λt+a) \end{equation*} in which $b,λ,k,a$ are parameters with $k$ large. Their description of dynamical behavior now known as chaos in this dissipative dynamical system was a landmark in dynamical systems theory. Littlewood's monster paper containing the details of their investigation finally appeared twelve years later in the journal Acta Mathematica. I review here the context in which Cartwright and Littlewood worked when they wrote their 1945 paper and the enduring mathematical legacy of their discoveries. I also give brief pointers to research they inspired in other application areas.
title The Legacy of the Cartwright-Littlewood Collaboration
topic Dynamical Systems
34C15, 34E13, 34E17, 37-03, 37D45, 37N20
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.06889