The effect of a resonant electric field on a classical hydrogen atom

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Abstract
The authors analyse the motion of a classical hydrogen atom in a resonant electric field and obtain a criterion, based upon the resonance overlap theory, for the strength of the field required to produce ionisation: the dependence of this upon Im, the angular momentum in the field direction, is obtained. For Im=0 they present preliminary numerical results that are in reasonable agreement with theory. An averaging approximation is used to show that for weak fields the system decouples into two one-dimensional systems. The authors show, by direct comparison with numerically integrated orbits, that this decoupling is accurate for moderate field strengths; but they also show that the dynamical picture suggested by this averaging approximation is not correct in some regions of phase space. A tentative explanation of this difference is given.