Ammonia Permutation symmetry

The group developed above to describe the symmetry of the ammonia molecule consisted only of the permutation operations. However, if the triangular pyramid corresponding to this structure is flattened, it becomes planer in me limit. The RF3 molecule shown in Fig. lb is an example of this symmetry. In this case it becomes possible to invert the coordinate perpendicular to the plane of the molecule, the z axis. Obviously, the operation of reflection in the (horizontal) plane of the molecule, <7h> is identical. It is easy, then, to identify the irreducible representations A and A" as symmetric or antisymmetric, respectively, under the coordinate inversion. The group composed of the identity and the inversion of the z axis is then <5 = s> whose character table is of the form of Table 7. 

Figure 2.1 The actions of symmetry operations of the point group, C3V, in the structure of the ammonia molecule giving rise to the permutation representation based on the matrices in the second column of the figure. The principal rotational axis, C3, is normal to the plane of the paper.

Fig. 5.1 Dynamic symmetry group of ammonia, with permutations of nuclei, and inversion of all particles (indicated by an asterisk). The plus (minus) sign indicates the position of an electron above (below) the plane of the hydrogen atoms...

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