Electric field gradient tensor description

It has recently become clear that classical electrostatics is much more useful in the description of intermolecular interactions than was previously thought. The key is the use of distributed multipoles, which provide a compact and accurate picture of the charge distribution but do not suffer from the convergence problems associated with the conventional one-centre multipole expansion. The article describes how the electrostatic interaction can be formulated efficiently and simply, by using the best features of both the Cartesian tensor and the spherical tensor formalisms, without the need for inconvenient transformations between molecular and space-fixed coordinate systems, and how related phenomena such as induction and dispersion interactions can be incorporated within the same framework. The formalism also provides a very simple route for the evaluation of electric fields and field gradients. The article shows how the forces and torques needed for molecular dynamics calculations can be evaluated efficiently. The formulae needed for these applications are tabulated. 

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