Analytical relation between two chaos indicators: FLI and MEGNO

MESTRE, M.; CINCOTTA, P.M.; GIORDANO, C.M.

MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Año: 2011 vol. 414 p. 100 - 103

0035-8711

We report an intrinsic relation between the mean exponential growth factor of nearby orbits(MEGNO) and the fast Lyapunov indicator (FLI), two variational methods that have beenwidely applied to stability issues in astronomy. For both continuous-time and discrete-timesystems, we arrive at an analytic formula that expresses the MEGNO in terms of the FLI andits time-average. This connection, unknown for more than 10 years, allows us to understandthe differences and similarities in the performance of both indicators.