LOBE AREA IN ADIABATIC HAMILTONIAN-SYSTEMS

We establish an analytically computable formula based on the adiabatic Melnikov function for lobe area in one-degree-of-freedom Hamiltonian systems depending on a parameter which varies slowly in time. We illustrate this lobe area result on a slowly, parametrically forced pendulum, a paradigm problem for adiabatic chaos. Our analysis unites the theory of action from classical mechanics with the theory of the adiabatic Melnikov function from the field of global bifurcation theory.