Darboux’s Theorem, Lie series and the standardization of the Salerno and Ablowitz–Ladik models

In the framework of nonlinear Hamiltonian lattices, we revisit the proof of Moser-Darboux’s Theorem, in order to present a general scheme for its constructive applicability to Hamiltonian models with non-standard symplectic structures. We take as a guiding example the Salerno and Ablowitz–Ladik (AL) models: we justify the form of a well-known change of coordinates which is adapted to the Gauge symmetry, by showing that it comes out in a natural way within the general strategy outlined in the proof. Moreover, the full or truncated Lie-series technique in the extended phase-space is used to transform the Salerno model, at leading orders in the Darboux coordinates: thus the dNLS Hamiltonian turns out to be a normal form of the Salerno and AL models; as a byproduct we also get estimates of the dynamics of these models by means of dNLS one. We also stress that, once it is cast into the perturbative approach, the method allows to deal with the cases where the explicit trasformation is not known, or even worse it is not writable in terms of elementary functions. •We revisit the applicability of the standardization of a symplectic structure•Constructive-perturbative Lie-series method estimates time dependent vector fields•We compare Ablowitz–Ladik, Salerno, dNLS models under a common symplectic structure