Complex Pendulum Oscillations at Complex Times

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The last few years have seen a rebirth of the importance of complex trajectories. In addition to the classic uses (saddle point approximation of path integrals and complex paths for -symmetric Hamiltonians), the transitions on the Riemann surface sheets as a possible (deterministic) explanation of classical chaos are also popular. The pendulum is the perfect example to study complex trajectories. This shows trajectories of a pendulum in the complex plane for complex initial conditions and complex time running along a ray through the origin of the complex time plane.
Contributed by: Michael Trott (March 2011)
Open content licensed under CC BY-NC-SA
Snapshots
Details
— maximal time
— (complex) initial elongation
— direction
of the ray in the complex time plane
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