Electron Electric Dipole Moment

To look ahead a little, there are properties that depend on the choice of coordinate system the electric dipole moment of a charged species is origin-dependent in a well-understood way. But not the charge density or the electronic energy Quantities that have the same value in any coordinate system are sometimes referred to as invariants, a term borrowed from the theory of relativity. 

Molecules do not consist of rigid arrays of point charges, and on application of an external electrostatic field the electrons and protons will rearrange themselves until the interaction energy is a minimum. In classical electrostatics, where we deal with macroscopic samples, the phenomenon is referred to as the induced polarization. I dealt with this in Chapter 15, when we discussed the Onsager model of solvation. The nuclei and the electrons will tend to move in opposite directions when a field is applied, and so the electric dipole moment will change. Again, in classical electrostatics we study the induced dipole moment per unit volume. 

Electronegativity is a measure of the pulling power of an atom on the electrons in a bond. A polar covalent bond is a bond between two atoms with partial electric charges arising from their difference in electronegativity. The presence of partial charges gives rise to an electric dipole moment. 

In Section 2.12, we saw that a polar covalent bond in which electrons are not evenly distributed has a nonzero dipole moment. A polar molecule is a molecule with a nonzero dipole moment. All diatomic molecules are polar if their bonds are polar. An HC1 molecule, with its polar covalent bond (8+H—Clfi ), is a polar molecule. Its dipole moment of 1.1 D is typical of polar diatomic molecules (Table 3.1). All diatomic molecules that are composed of atoms of different elements are at least slightly polar. A nonpolar molecule is a molecule that has no electric dipole moment. All homonuclear diatomic molecules, diatomic molecules containing atoms of only one element, such as 02, N2, and Cl2, are nonpolar, because their bonds are nonpolar. 

FIGURE 5.5 The rapid fluctuations in the electron distribution in two neighboring molecules result in two instantaneous electric dipole moments that attract each other. The fluctuations flicker into different positions, but each new arrangement in one molecule induces an arrangement in the other that results in mutual attraction. 

For < z = 75-5°, < n = 44-5°. and Kn/Kl = 1-063, < is found to be 590 15, and for KjjIkj = 0-941, < is 6o° 45. It is seen that the bending of two valencies affects the disposition of the other four to only a very small extent. There are at present no published data by which this conclusion can be tested, and since the introduction of substituents in order to obtain such data from, say, measurements of electric dipole moment or electron-diffraction photographs would usually cause complications, as most substituents set up resonance of types other than that considered above, the interpretation of the results might be by no means straightforward. ... 

The expression for the electronic contribution to electric dipole moment,... 

As mentioned earlier, heavy polar diatomic molecules, such as BaF, YbF, T1F, and PbO, are the prime experimental probes for the search of the violation of space inversion symmetry (P) and time reversal invariance (T). The experimental detection of these effects has important consequences [37, 38] for the theory of fundamental interactions or for physics beyond the standard model [39, 40]. For instance, a series of experiments on T1F [41] have already been reported, which provide the tightest limit available on the tensor coupling constant Cj, proton electric dipole moment (EDM) dp, and so on. Experiments on the YbF and BaF molecules are also of fundamental significance for the study of symmetry violation in nature, as these experiments have the potential to detect effects due to the electron EDM de. Accurate theoretical calculations are also absolutely necessary to interpret these ongoing (and perhaps forthcoming) experimental outcomes. For example, knowledge of the effective electric field E (characterized by Wd) on the unpaired electron is required to link the experimentally determined P,T-odd frequency shift with the electron s EDM de in the ground (X2X /2) state of YbF and BaF. 

Electric dipole moment (EDM) ab initio calculations, 253-259 electron EDM, particle physics implications, 242-243... 

Electron density, permanent electric dipole moment, 249... 

Standar model (SM), particle physics, electron electric dipole moment, 242-243 Stark effect, permanent electric dipole moment, 245-249... 

It is important to understand that the atomic charges refer to atoms that are not spherical. Consequently the centroid of electronic charge of an atom does not in general coincide with the nucleus, and each atom therefore has an electric dipole moment—or, more generally, an electric dipolar polarization (since only the dipole moment of electrically neutral atoms is origin independent). 

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