On the recurrence and Lyapunov time scales of the motion near the chaos border

Abstract: Conditions for the emergence of a statistical relationship between $T_r$, the chaotic transport (recurrence) time, and $T_L$, the local Lyapunov time (the inverse of the numerically measured largest Lyapunov characteristic exponent), are considered for the motion inside the chaotic layer around the separatrix of a nonlinear resonance. When numerical values of the Lyapunov exponents are measured on a time interval not greater than $T_r$, the relationship is shown to resemble the quadratic one. This tentatively explains numerical results presented in the literature.