Bending dynamics of acetylene: New modes born in bifurcations of normal modes

Semiclassical techniques are used to analyze highly excited pure bending vibrational dynamics from spectra of C2H2. An analytic bifurcation approach is developed, based on critical points of a classical version of the quantum fitting Hamiltonian. At high energy four new types of anharmonic modes are born in bifurcations of the normal modes: local, orthogonal, precessional, and counter-rotator. Visual insight into their nature is obtained with the help of computer-generated three-dimensional animations. The connection between the local mode and the acetylene-vinylidene isomerization "reaction mode" is considered.