Non-linear Dynamics Commons^™

Relative Equilibria Of Isosceles Triatomic Molecules In Classical Approximation, Damaris Miriam Mckinley

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In this thesis we study relative equilibria of di-atomic and isosceles tri-atomic molecules in classical approximations with repulsive-attractive interaction. For di-atomic systems we retrieve well-known results. The main contribution consists of the study of the existence and stability of relative equilibria in a three-atom system formed by two identical atoms of mass $m$ and a third of mass $m_3$, constrained in an isosceles configuration at all times.

Given the shape of the binary potential only, we discuss the existence of equilibria and relative equilibria. We represent the results in the form of energy-momentum diagrams. We find that fixing the masses …