Dynamics, periodic orbits and $C^1$ non-integrability of the ABC flow

RESUMO

We study the Arnold-Beltrami-Childress (ABC) flow in perturbative regimes near its three elementary integrable coordinate axes. Starting from a degenerate family of periodic streamlines of the limiting integrable system, we use first-order averaging to prove the existence of two isolated periodic solutions of the perturbed flow. The three perturbative regimes are related by the cyclic symmetry of the ABC vector field. In each case, the corresponding two-dimensional averaged system possesses two simple equilibria, one elliptic and the other hyperbolic, depending on the sign of the relevant parameter ratio. Poincaré sections illustrate how the degenerate periodic structure of the integrable limit breaks under perturbation and how the isolated periodic orbits predicted by averaging emerge within the surrounding dynamics. These periodic orbits provide the natural link between the perturbative analysis and the integrability problem. The eigenvalues of the linearized averaged system determine the leading-order behavior of the nontrivial characteristic multipliers of the bifurcating periodic solutions. Combining this relation with the Poincaré-Llibre-Valls criterion, we prove that, in a neighborhood of each of these periodic orbits, there exists no nonconstant first integral $H\in C^1$ that is regular along the orbit. The analytical results are further illustrated and confirmed by direct shooting, monodromy-matrix computations, and continuation of the elliptic and hyperbolic branches, demonstrating that the first-order averaging approximation remains quantitatively accurate over a substantially wider parameter range than the strict asymptotic regime.