An introduction to classical monodromy: Applications to molecules in external fields

Abstract

An integrable Hamiltonian system presents monodromy if the action-angle variables cannot be defined globally. As a prototype of classical monodromy with azimuthal symmetry, we consider a linear molecule interacting with external fields and explore the topology structure of its phase space. Based on the behavior of closed orbits around singular points or regions of the energy–momentum plane, a semi-theoretical method is derived to detect classical monodromy. The validity of the monodromy test is numerically illustrated for several systems with azimuthal symmetry.