Cartesian coordinates, vibration-rotation

Vibrations may be decomposed into three orthogonal components Ta (a = x, y, z) in three directions. These displacements have the same symmetry properties as cartesian coordinates. Likewise, any rotation may be decomposed into components Ra. The i.r. spanned by translations and rotations must clearly follow the appropriate symmetry type of the point-group character table. In quantum formalism, a transition will be allowed only if the symmetry product of the initial and final-state wave functions contains the symmetry species of the operator appropriate to the transition process. Definition of the symmetry product will be explained in terms of a simple example. 

Consider a molecule containing N atoms. We can refer to the position of each atom by specifying three coordinates (e.g., X, Y and Z Cartesian coordinates) Thus the total number of coordinate values is 3 N and we say that the molecule has 3 N degrees of freedom since each coordinate value may be specified quite independently of the others. Once all 3 N coordinates have been fixed, the bond distances and bond angles of the molecules are also fixed and no further orbitrary specification can be made. So a molecule which is of finite dimension will thus be made of rotational, vibrational and translational degrees of freedom. 

In principal one can calculate the electronic energy as a function of the Cartesian coordinates of the three atomic nuclei of the ground state of this system using the methods of quantum mechanics (see Chapter 2). (In subsequent discussion, the terms coordinates of nuclei and coordinates of atoms will be used interchangeably.) By analogy with the discussion in Chapter 2, this function, within the Born-Oppenheimer approximation, is not only the potential energy surface on which the reactant and product molecules rotate and vibrate, but is also the potential... 

Equation 2.17 is of the form A = PDP-1. The 9x9 Hessian for a triatomic molecule (three Cartesian coordinates for each atom) is decomposed by diagonalization into a P matrix whose columns are direction vectors for the vibrations whose force constants are given by the k matrix. Actually, columns 1, 2 and 3 of P and the corresponding k, k2 and k3 of k refer to translational motion of the molecule (motion of the whole molecule from one place to another in space) these three force constants are nearly zero. Columns 4, 5 and 6 of P and the corresponding k4, k5 and k6 of k refer to rotational motion about the three principal... 

Figure 2.7-6 A Assignment of the Cartesian coordinate axes and the symmetry operations of a planar molecule of point group C2,.. B Character table, 1 symbol of the point group after Schoen-flies 2 international notation of the point group 3 symmetry species (irreducible representations) 4 symmetry operations 5 characters of the symmetry operations in the symmetry species +1 means symmetric, -1 antisymmetric 6 x, y, z assignment of the normal coordinates of the translations, direction of the change of the dipole moment by the infrared active vibrations, R, Ry, and R stand for rotations about the axes specified in the subscript 7 x, xy,. .. assign the Raman active species by the change of the components of the tensor of polarizability, aw, (Xxy,. ...

The described treatment has the disadvantage of being based on Cartesian coordinates, which depend on the system of axes used to localize the molecule. As an example, a methyl group can have different coordinates (CH3 in toluene or ethane), while the chemical and spectro.scopic properties of both are very similar. In order to take advantage of this chemical information, internal coordinates were introduced, which refer to chemically relevant quantities. A molecule with n atoms has 3n degrees of freedom, six of which correspond to the overall translations and rotations of the molecule. Only 3n 6 coordinates are necessary to describe the vibrational motions of the system. Five types of coordinates can be defined ... 

A nonlinear molecule of N atoms has 32V — 6 internal vibrational degrees of freedom, and therefore 3A — 6 normal modes of vibration (the three translational and three rotational degrees of freedom are not of vibrational spectroscopic relevance). Thus, there are 32V — 6 independent internal coordinates, each of which can be expressed in terms of Cartesian coordinates. To first order, we can write any internal displacement coordinate ry in the form... 

Let us summarize the three important prerequisites for a 3D structure descriptor It should be (1) independent of the number of atoms, that is, the size of a molecule (2) unambiguous regarding the three-dimensional arrangement of the atoms and (3) invariant against translation and rotation of the entire molecule. Further prerequisites depend on the chemical problem to be solved. Some chemical effects may have an undesired influence on the structure descriptor if the experimental data to be processed do not account for them. A typical example is the conformational flexibility of a molecule, which has a profound influence on a 3D descriptor based on Cartesian coordinates. The application in the field of structure-spectrum correlation problems in vibrational spectroscopy requires that a descriptor contains physicochemical information related to vibration states. In addition, it would be helpful to gain the complete 3D structure from the descriptor or at least structural information (descriptor decoding). 

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