Question on Poincare Recurrence Theorem

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The Poincaré Recurrence Theorem asserts that in a flow that preserves volume and has only bounded orbits, there are orbits that intersect any open set infinitely often. However, this theorem does not guarantee that all trajectories in a Hamiltonian system with a bounded phase space will return arbitrarily close to their original starting points; only some trajectories will do so. This distinction is critical, as it counters the assumptions made in Boltzmann's theory of kinetics regarding the behavior of particles in a closed system.

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Poincare Recurrence Theorem states that:
"If a flow preserves volume and has only bounded orbits then for each open set there exist orbits that intersect the set infinitely often."

But it does not imply (does it?) that
"In hamiltonian system with bounded phase space, all trajectories will eventually return arbitrarily close to the original starting point."

Only some not all trajectories will do so. When we consider a small neighbourhood of the starting point, and by the theorem, there exist some orbits (not all) that intersect the set later.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Yes,Poincaré's result was the main counterargument physicists found to the veridicity of Boltzmann's theory of kinetics...

Daniel.
 

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