TORUS QUANTIZATION OF SYMMETRICALLY EXCITED HELIUM

The recent discovery by Richter and Wintgen [J. Phys. B 23, L197 (1990)] that the classical helium atom is not globally ergodic has stimulated renewed interest in its semiclassical quantization. The Einstein-Brillouin-Keller quantization of Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser tori around stable periodic orbits becomes locally possible in a selected region of phase space. Using a hyperspherical representation we have found a dynamically confining potential allowing for a stable motion near the Wannier ridge. The resulting semiclassical eigenenergies provide a test for full quantum calculations in the limit of very high quantum numbers. The relations to frequently used group-theoretical classifications for doubly excited states and to the periodic-orbit quantization of the chaotic portion of the phase space are discussed. The extrapolation of the semiclassical quantization to low-lying states give remarkably accurate estimates for the energies of all symmetric L = 0 states of helium.