A procedure to obtain the symbolic dynamics for conservative dynamical systems is introduced with reference to the standard map in a strongly chaotic regime. The method extends an approach previously developed for highly dissipative systems. It is based on the construction of a generating partition from homoclinic tangencies and fibers of invariant manifolds. It is found that some arbitrariness in the construction of the partition is unavoidable.

• Received 21 February 1995

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.51.R3811