Nonlinear Response of Classical Dynamical Systems to Short Pulses

Valuable insight into the nonlinear dynamics of a system can be gleaned from its response to a single intense short pulse. We derive expressions for the corresponding nonlinear response functions and show that the fluctuation-dissipation theorem may be extended beyond the linear response limit to an arbitrary pulse intensity. As an illustrative example, we calculate response functions up to 11th order for the regular Lorentz gas in two dimensions