Extending the Nonlinear-Beam-Dynamics Concept of 1D Fixed Points to 2D Fixed Lines

The origin of nonlinear dynamics traces back to the study of the dynamics of planets with the seminal work of Poincaré at the end of the nineteenth century: Les Méthodes Nouvelles de la Mécanique Céleste, Vols. 1–3 (Gauthier Villars, Paris, 1899). In his work he introduced a methodology fruitful for investigating the dynamical properties of complex systems, which led to the so-called “Poincaré surface of section,” which allows one to capture the global dynamical properties of a system, characterized by fixed points and separatrices with respect to regular and chaotic motion. For two-dimensional phase space (one degree of freedom) this approach has been extremely useful and applied to particle accelerators for controlling their beam dynamics as of the second half of the twentieth century.We describe here an extension of the concept of 1D fixed points to fixed lines in two dimensions. These structures become the fundamental entities for characterizing the nonlinear motion in the four-dimensional phase space (two degrees of freedom).