Phase space barriers and dividing surfaces in the absence of critical points of the potential energy

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the existence of phase space invariant manifolds, specifically NHIMs, that govern reaction dynamics without the need for saddle points on the potential energy surface, expanding the understanding of reaction mechanisms.

Contribution

It introduces methods to identify NHIMs in systems lacking potential energy saddle points, broadening the scope of phase space analysis in chemical reactions.

Findings

Invariant manifolds exist without saddle points in phase space.

NHIMs can be found using new methods independent of potential energy features.

Reactive flux can be minimized through these phase space structures.

Abstract

We consider the existence of invariant manifolds in phase space governing reaction dynamics in situations where there are no saddle points on the potential energy surface in the relevant regions of configuration space. We point out that such situations occur in a number of important classes of chemical reactions, and we illustrate this concretely by considering a model for transition state switching in an ion-molecule association reaction due to Chesnavich (J. Chem. Phys. {\bf 84}, 2615 (1986)). For this model we show that, in the region of configuration space relevant to the reaction, there are no saddle points on the potential energy surface, but that in phase space there is a normally hyperbolic invariant manifold (NHIM) bounding a dividing surface having the property that the reactive flux through this dividing surface is a minimum. We then describe two methods for finding NHIMs and their associated phase space structures in systems with more than two degrees-of-freedom. These methods do not rely on the existence of saddle points, or any other particular feature, of the potential energy surface.