Bifurcation of Dividing Surfaces Constructed from a Pitchfork Bifurcation of Periodic Orbits in a Symmetric Potential Energy Surface with a Post-Transition-State Bifurcation

Abstract

In this work, we analyze the bifurcation of dividing surfaces that occurs as a result of a pitchfork bifurcation of periodic orbits in a two degrees of freedom Hamiltonian System. The potential energy surface of the system that we consider has four critical points: two minima, a high energy saddle and a lower energy saddle separating two wells (minima). In this paper, we study the structure, the range, and the minimum and maximum extent of the periodic orbit dividing surfaces of the family of periodic orbits of the lower saddle as a function of the total energy.