Bom-Oppenheimer electronic

The particular iterative technique chosen by Car and Parrinello to iteratively solve the electronic structure problem in concert with nuclear motion was simulated annealing [11]. Specifically, variational parameters for the electronic wave function, in addition to nuclear positions, were treated like dynamical variables in a molecular dynamics simulation. When electronic parameters are kept near absolute zero in temperature, they describe the Bom-Oppenheimer electronic wave function. One advantage of the Car-Parrinello procedure is rather subtle. Taking the parameters as dynamical variables leads to robust prediction of values at a new time step from previous values, and cancellation in errors in the value of the nuclear forces. Another advantage is that the procedure, as is generally true of simulated annealing techniques, is equally suited to both linear and non-linear optimization. If desired, both linear coefficients of basis functions and non-linear functional parameters can be optimized, and arbitrary electronic models employed, so long as derivatives with respect to electronic wave function parameters can be calculated. 

Baer M (2006) Beyond bom oppenheimer electronic non-adia-batic coupling terms and conical intersections. Wiley, New York... 

Bom-Oppenheimer electronic SchrOdinger equation ab initio and on the usefulness and reliability of the solutions. 

Knowledge of the underlying nuclear dynamics is essential for the classification and description of photochemical processes. For the study of complicated systems, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are an essential tool, providing information on the channels open for decay or relaxation, the relative populations of these channels, and the timescales of system evolution. Simulations are particularly important in cases where the Bom-Oppenheimer (BO) approximation breaks down, and a system is able to evolve non-adiabatically, that is, in more than one electronic state. 

Within the Bom-Oppenheimer (BO) approximation, A) and B) may be written as the product of an electronic wave function, M)gj and a nuclear wave function M) . 

Within the Bom-Oppenheimer approximation, the electronic wave function R)ei, is well defined, throughout the reaction and may be written analogously [cf. Eq. (6)]... 

It was stated above that the Schrodinger equation cannot be solved exactly for any molecular systems. However, it is possible to solve the equation exactly for the simplest molecular species, Hj (and isotopically equivalent species such as ITD" ), when the motion of the electrons is decoupled from the motion of the nuclei in accordance with the Bom-Oppenheimer approximation. The masses of the nuclei are much greater than the masses of the electrons (the resting mass of the lightest nucleus, the proton, is 1836 times heavier than the resting mass of the electron). This means that the electrons can adjust almost instantaneously to any changes in the positions of the nuclei. The electronic wavefunction thus depends only on the positions of the nuclei and not on their momenta. Under the Bom-Oppenheimer approximation the total wavefunction for the molecule can be written in the following form ... 

In PPP-SCF calculations, we make the Bom-Oppenheimer, a-rr separation, and single-electron approximations just as we did in Huckel theor y (see section on approximate solutions in Chapter 6) but we take into account mutual electrostatic repulsion of n electrons, which was not done in Huckel theory. We write the modified Schroedinger equation in a form similar to Eq. 6.2.6... 

In the general case of an electronic Hamiltonian for atoms or molecules under the Bom-Oppenheimer approximation,... 

Since depends on nuclear coordinates, because of the term, so do and but, in the Bom-Oppenheimer approximation proposed in 1927, it is assumed that vibrating nuclei move so slowly compared with electrons that J/ and involve the nuclear coordinates as parameters only. The result for a diatomic molecule is that a curve (such as that in Figure 1.13, p. 24) of potential energy against intemuclear distance r (or the displacement from equilibrium) can be drawn for a particular electronic state in which and are constant. 

The Bom-Oppenheimer approximation is valid because the electrons adjust instantaneously to any nuclear motion they are said to follow the nuclei. For this reason Eg can be treated as part of the potential field in which the nuclei move, so that... 

A fully theoretical calculation of a potential energy surface must be a quantum mechanical calculation, and the mathematical difflculties associated with the method require that approximations be made. The first of these is the Bom-Oppenheimer approximation, which states that it is acceptable to uncouple the electronic and nuclear motions. This is a consequence of the great disparity in the masses of the electron and nuclei. Therefore, the calculation can proceed by fixing the location... 

The Bom-Oppenheimer approximation shows us the way ahead for a polyelec-tronic molecule comprising n electrons and N nuclei for most chemical applications we want to solve the electronic time-independent Schrodinger equation... 

The first step is to make use of the Bom-Oppenheimer approximation, so I separate the nuclear and the electronic terms ... 

But we can carry forward the knowledge of the Bom-Oppenheimer approximation gained from Chapter 2 and focus attention on the electronic problem. Thus... 

In Chapter 4,1 discussed the concept of an idealized dihydrogen molecule where the electrons did not repel each other. After making the Bom-Oppenheimer approximation, we found that the electronic Schrddinger equation separated into two independent equations, one for either electron. These equations are the ones appropriate to the hydrogen molecule ion. 

The derivations given above related to a single particle in a constant magnetic induction. For a molecule within the Bom-Oppenheimer approximation, the derivation is similar except that we take the nuclei to be fixed in space. There is a nuclear and an electronic contribution to each property. 

The Bom-Oppenheimer approximation is usually very good. For the hydrogen molecule the error is of the order of 10 ", and for systems with heavier nuclei, the approximation becomes better. As we shall see later, it is only possible in a few cases to solve the electronic part of the Schrodinger equation to an accuracy of 10 ", i.e. neglect of the nuclear-electron coupling is usually only a minor approximation compared with other errors. 

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