Bifurcations and chaos of classical trajectories in a deformed nuclear potential

The organization of the phase space of a classical nucleon in an axially symmetric deformed potential with the restriction Lsub(z)=0 is studied by drawing the Poincare surfaces of section. In the limit of small deformations three simple limits help to understand this organization. Moreover important bifurcations of periodic trajectories occur. At higher deformations multifurcations and chaos are observed. Chaos is developed to a larger extent in the heavier nuclei. (author)