Semiclassical dynamics of a rigid rotor: SO(3) covariant approach

Abstract

A semi-classical analysis of the quantum rigid-rotor motion based on a phase-space description of the rotation in terms of a SO(3) covariant Wigner-like distribution is presented. The results are applied to the description of the intense-field alignment of an anisotropically polarizable molecule with high rotational excitation.

Keywords

• phase-space
• rigid rotor
• semiclassical