Escape of a particle from two-dimensional potential well

Abstract The paper addresses the escape of a classical particle from a two-dimensional potential well. The main goal is to explore the escape basin and to formulate the analytic prediction of the stability region in the space of initial conditions. To this point, an appropriate modification of the isolated resonance approximation is developed. The approach provides an outer boundary for the stability basin. The mechanism of erosion of the predicted stability boundary via the secondary resonance is explored numerically.