Leading Pollicott-Ruelle Resonances and Transport in Area-Preserving Maps

The leading Pollicott-Ruelle resonance is calculated analytically for a general class of two-dimensional area-preserving maps. Its wave number dependence determines the normal transport coefficients. In particular, a general exact formula for the diffusion coefficient D is derived without any high stochasticity approximation and a new effect emerges: The angular evolution can induce fast or slow modes of diffusion even in the high stochasticity regime. The behavior of D is examined for three particular cases: (i) the standard map, (ii) a sawtooth map, and (iii) a Harper map as an example of a map with nonlinear rotation number. Numerical simulations support this formula.