Born-Oppenheimer approximation terms neglected

In the absence of external potentials, the electrostatic potential energy of nuclei and electrons can be represented by the Coulombic interactions among the electrons and nuclei. There are three groups of electrostatic interactions interactions between nuclei, interactions between electrons and nuclei, and interactions between electrons. Following the Born-Oppenheimer approximation, we neglect nuclei interactions in our DG-based model. Using Coulomb s law, the repulsive interaction between electrons can be expressed as the Hartree term ... 

The Born-Oppenheimer approximation allows the two parts of the problem to be solved independently, so we can construct an electronic Hamiltonian which neglects the kinetic energy term for the nuclei ... 

The interaction which would probably be responsible for this coupling would be found in the terms usually neglected when the Born-Oppenheimer approximation is made. 

Fig. 1. The molecular energy level model used to discuss radiationless transitions in polyatomic molecules. 0O, s, and S0,S are vibronic components of the ground, an excited, and a third electronic state, respectively, in the Born-Oppenheimer approximation. 0S and 0 and 0j are assumed to be allowed, while transitions between j0,j and the thermally accessible 00 are assumed to be forbidden. The f 0n are the molecular eigenstates...

For homonuclear molecules, the g or u symmetry is almost always conserved. Only external electric fields, hyperfine effects (Pique, et al., 1984), and collisions can induce perturbations between g and u states. See Reinhold, et al., (1998) who discuss how several terms that are neglected in the Born-Oppenheimer approximation can give rise to interactions between g and u states in hetero-isotopomers, as in the HD molecule. An additional symmetry will be discussed in Section 3.2.2 parity or, more usefully, the e and / symmetry character of the rotational levels remains well defined for both hetero- and homonuclear diatomic molecules. The matrix elements of Table 3.2 describe direct interactions between basis states. Indirect interactions can also occur and are discussed in Sections 4.2, 4.4.2 and 4.5.1. Even for indirect interactions the A J = 0 and e / perturbation selection rules remain valid (see Section 3.2.2). 

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