The Fermi-Pasta-Ulam problem: periodic orbits, normal forms and resonance overlap criteria

Fermi, Pasta and Ulam observed that the excitation of a low frequency normal mode in a nonlinear acoustic chain leads to localization in normal mode space on large time scales. Fast equipartition (and thus complete delocalization) in the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam chain is restored if relevant intensive control parameters exceed certain threshold values. We compare recent results on periodic orbits (in the localization regime) and resonant normal forms (in a weak delocalization regime), and relate them to various resonance overlap criteria. We show that the approaches quantitatively agree in their estimate of the localization-delocalization threshold. A key ingredient for this transition are resonances of overtones.