A Parabolic Chaplygin Pendulum and a Paul Trap: Nonintegrability, Stability, and Boundedness

Abstract

This paper is a small review devoted to the dynamics of a point on a paraboloid. Specifically, it is concerned with the motion both under the action of a gravitational field and without it. It is assumed that the paraboloid can rotate about a vertical axis with constant angular velocity. The paper includes both well-known results and a number of new results.

We consider the two most widespread friction (resistance) models: dry (Coulomb) friction and viscous friction. It is shown that the addition of external damping (air drag) can lead to stability of equilibrium at the saddle point and hence to preservation of the region of bounded motion in a neighborhood of the saddle point. Analysis of three-dimensional Poincaré sections shows that limit cycles can arise in this case in the neighborhood of the saddle point.