Periodic orbits, recurrences and bifurcations in atomic spectra

Abstract

It is possible to measure in the laboratory the periods Tk or the classical actions Sk of classical periodic orbits of an atomic electron. (We discuss highly excited states of the atom, in which the electron behaves much like a classical particle, and classical orbits become observable.) We will examine situations in which classical dynamics of the electron makes a transition from orderly to chaotic. In this circumstance, periodic orbits proliferate—existing orbits bifurcate, sending out new ones, and new periodic orbits appear ‘‘out of nowhere.’’ In this paper we briefly review experimental measurements carried out by various groups that display these recurrences, and we review the theory that gives a quantitative description of these recurrences and their bifurcations.