Geometric approach to chaos in the classical dynamics of abelian lattice gauge theory

A Riemannian geometrization of dynamics is used to study chaoticity in the classical Hamiltonian dynamics of a U(1) lattice gauge theory. This approach allows one to obtain analytical estimates of the largest Lyapunov exponent in terms of time averages of geometric quantities. These estimates are compared with the results of numerical simulations, and turn out to be very close to the values extrapolated for very large lattice sizes even when the geometric quantities are computed using small lattices. The scaling of the Lyapunov exponent with the energy density is found to be well described by a quadratic power law.