Metastable States in Parametrically Excited Multimode Hamiltonian Systems

Consider a linear autonomous Hamiltonian system with m time periodic bound state solutions. In this paper we study their dynamics under time almost periodic perturbations which are small, localized and Hamiltonian. The analysis proceeds through a reduction of the original infinite dimensional dynamical system to the dynamics of two coupled subsystems: a dominant m-dimensional system of ordinary differential equations (normal form), governing the projections onto the bound states and an infinite dimensional dispersive wave equation. The present work generalizes previous work of the authors, where the case of a single bound state is considered.