Phase-space transition states Hamiltonian dynamics

In order to understand the problem of finding TS with three or more DOFs, it is useful to address the question of dimensionalities, in configuration and phase space. In classical, Hamiltonian dynamics, transition states are grounded on the idea that certain surfaces (more precisely, certain manifolds) act as barriers in phase space. It is possible to devise barriers in phase space, since in phase space, in contrast to configuration space, two trajectories never cross [uniqueness of solutions of ODEs, see Eq. (4)]. In order to construct a barrier in phase space, the first step is to construct a manifold if that is made of a set of trajectories [8]. 

The point q = p = 0 (or P = Q = 0) is a fixed point of the dynamics in the reactive mode. In the full-dimensional dynamics, it corresponds to all trajectories in which only the motion in the bath modes is excited. These trajectories are characterized by the property that they remain confined to the neighborhood of the saddle point for all time. They correspond to a bound state in the continuum, and thus to the transition state in the sense of Ref. 20. Because it is described by the two independent conditions q = 0 and p = 0, the set of all initial conditions that give rise to trajectories in the transition state forms a manifold of dimension 2/V — 2 in the full 2/V-dimensional phase space. It is called the central manifold of the saddle point. The central manifold is subdivided into level sets of the Hamiltonian in Eq. (5), each of which has dimension 2N — 1. These energy shells are normally hyperbolic invariant manifolds (NHIM) of the dynamical system [88]. Following Ref. 34, we use the term NHIM to refer to these objects. In the special case of the two-dimensional system, every NHIM has dimension one. It reduces to a periodic orbit and reproduces the well-known PODS [20-22]. 

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