Stable periodic orbits of the highly excited nonrotating H3+ molecular ion

Application of the Newton method locating stable periodic orbits is extended to include nonotating and rotating triatomic molecules in 3D. A Monte Carlo-Newton method search for stable periodic orbits of the H3+ molecular ion at the dissociation energy into H+ + H2 is presented. Using the convergence volume of the Newton method as an importance criterion, we find that the ‘horsehoe’ orbit used previously to assign the experimental coarse grained photodissociation spectra of H3+ is the most important stable orbit. An additional new stable orbit is also discovered. Implications for quantum computations and experimental results are discussed.