Invariant torus

An invariant torus is a subset homeomorphic to a torus and preserved by a flow. In action-angle variables, an integrable Hamiltonian flow moves linearly in the angular coordinates of each regular invariant torus.

The torus is a particular invariant manifold; its toroidal topology is an extra condition beyond invariance.

A quasiperiodic orbit on a torus has angular coordinates $\theta (t)=\theta (0)+\omega t$ modulo $2\pi$. It is periodic exactly when the nonzero frequencies are commensurate; rationally independent frequencies produce a dense orbit.

For $x(t)=A\cos {\omega }_{1}t+B\cos {\omega }_{2}t$ with irrational frequency ratio and nonzero amplitudes, $|x|\le |A|+|B|$. The phase trajectory is dense on the two-torus, so this bound is a supremum. The required exact phase alignment may never occur at finite time. Thus an exam's maximum-amplitude estimate can be a limiting bound rather than an attained displacement; finite observation intervals have smaller maxima.

For two uncoupled harmonic oscillators with nonzero amplitudes and irrational frequency ratio ${\omega }_1/{\omega }_2$, the orbit is bounded but not periodic. It winds quasiperiodically on a two-dimensional invariant torus; a common period would force the frequency ratio to be rational.