Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 April 2009
In the present paper we obtain first approximation formulae for the regions of dynamical instability of linear canonical systems. These formulae are analogous to the formulae for Hamiltonian systems stated by Krein and Jakubovič [5] and proved by Pittel' and Juzefovič [8]. Special cases were considered by Malkin [7] and Jakubovič [3]. Related papers are Hale [2] and Jakubovič [4]. However, our method differs from the methods used by these authors and seems to us to be both simpler and more general.