  Typical Hamiltonian liquids display exponential "Lyapunov instability", also
called "sensitive dependence on initial conditions". Although Hamilton's
equations are thoroughly time-reversible, the forward and backward Lyapunov
instabilities can differ, qualitatively. In numerical work, the expected
forward/backward pairing of Lyapunov exponents is also occasionally violated.
To illustrate, we consider many-body inelastic collisions in two space
dimensions. Two mirror-image colliding crystallites can either bounce, or not,
giving rise to a single liquid drop, or to several smaller droplets, depending
upon the initial kinetic energy and the interparticle forces. The difference
between the forward and backward evolutionary instabilities of these problems
can be correlated with dissipation and with the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
Accordingly, these asymmetric stabilities of Hamilton's equations can provide
an "Arrow of Time". We illustrate these facts for two small crystallites
colliding so as to make a warm liquid. We use a specially-symmetrized form of
Levesque and Verlet's bit-reversible Leapfrog integrator. We analyze
trajectories over millions of collisions with several equally-spaced time
reversals.
