Homoclinic crossing in open systems: Chaos in periodically perturbed monopole plus quadrupolelike potentials

The Melnikov method is applied to periodically perturbed open systems modeled by an inverse–square–law attraction center plus a quadrupolelike term. A compactification approach that regularizes periodic orbits at infinity is introduced. The (modified) Smale-Birkhoff homoclinic theorem is used to study transversal homoclinic intersections. A larger class of open systems with degenerated (nonhyperbolic) unstable periodic orbits after regularization is also briefly considered.