Symplectic integrators preserve the phase-space volume and have favorable performances in long time simulations. Methods for an explicit symplectic integration have been extensively studied for separable Hamiltonians (i.e., H(q,p)=K(p)+V(q)), and they correspond to both accuracy and efficiency. However, nonseparable Hamiltonians also model important problems, such as non-Newtonian mechanics and nearly integrable systems in action-angle coordinates. Unfortunately, implicit methods had been the only available symplectic approach for general nonseparable systems.

This talk will describe a recent result that constructs explicit and arbitrary high-order symplectic integrators for arbitrary Hamiltonians. These integrators are based on a mechanical restraint that binds two copies of phase space together. Based on backward error analysis, KAM theory, and some additional multiscale analysis, a pleasant error bound is established for integrable systems, and demonstrated on a conceptual example and the Schwarzschild geodesics problem. For nonintegrable systems, some numerical experiments with the nonlinear Schr/"odinger equation will be discussed.