The n-particle periodic Toda chain is a well known example of an integrable
but nonseparable Hamiltonian system in R^{2n}. We show that Sigma_k, the k-fold
singularities of the Toda chain, ie points where there exist k independent
linear relations amongst the gradients of the integrals of motion, coincide
with points where there are k (doubly) degenerate eigenvalues of
representatives L and Lbar of the two inequivalent classes of Lax matrices
(corresponding to degenerate periodic or antiperiodic solutions of the
associated second-order difference equation). The singularities are shown to be
nondegenerate, so that Sigma_k is a codimension-2k symplectic submanifold.
Sigma_k is shown to be of elliptic type, and the frequencies of transverse
oscillations under Hamiltonians which fix Sigma_k are computed in terms of
spectral data of the Lax matrices. If mu(C) is the (even) Maslov index of a
closed curve C in the regular component of R^{2n}, then (-1)^{\mu(C)/2} is
given by the product of the holonomies (equal to +/- 1) of the even- (or odd-)
indexed eigenvector bundles of L and Lmat.Comment: 25 pages; published versio