Electronic state theory

The electronic energy thus computed at each molecular shape serves as a potential function working on nuclei, called (adiabatic) potential energy surface (PES), which drives nuclear wavepackets on it, and only in this stage time-variable is retrieved, to the time scale of nuclear dynamics mostly of the order of femtosecond. This is the standard theoretical framework for the study of the dynamics of molecules [59]. Very well structured and fast computer codes for quantum chemistry are now available, which can serve even as an alternative for experimental apparatus. 

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Let us look into a little more detailed aspects of the cmrent and future perspective for chemical d3mamics. As noted above, the foimdations of theoretical chemistry were already established in the 1920 s (both the papers of Born-Oppenheimer and Heitler London were published in 1927) and 1930 s (Landau and Zener published in 1932, and the transition state theory of Eyring and Evans-Polan3d was almost simultaneously launched in 1935), and even today the basic framework remains essentially the same. However, there are many reasons we need to promote the electronic-state theory into the realm of d3mamical electron theory by taking explicit account of time t in it. Below are listed some of the current attempts to achieve this goal. 

Mulliken symbols The designators, arising from group theory, of the electronic states of an ion in a crystal field. A and B are singly degenerate, E doubly degenerate, T triply degenerate states. Thus a D state of a free ion shows E and Tj states in an octahedral field. 

We now turn to electronic selection rules for syimnetrical nonlinear molecules. The procedure here is to examme the structure of a molecule to detennine what synnnetry operations exist which will leave the molecular framework in an equivalent configuration. Then one looks at the various possible point groups to see what group would consist of those particular operations. The character table for that group will then pennit one to classify electronic states by symmetry and to work out the selection rules. Character tables for all relevant groups can be found in many books on spectroscopy or group theory. Ftere we will only pick one very sunple point group called 2 and look at some simple examples to illustrate the method. 

They are caused by interactions between states, usually between two different electronic states. One hard and fast selection rule for perturbations is that, because angidar momentum must be conserved, the two interacting states must have the same /. The interaction between two states may be treated by second-order perturbation theory which says that the displacement of a state is given by... 

Electronic structure theory describes the motions of the electrons and produces energy surfaces and wavefiinctions. The shapes and geometries of molecules, their electronic, vibrational and rotational energy levels, as well as the interactions of these states with electromagnetic fields lie within the realm of quantum stnicture theory. 

Simons J 1972 Energy-shift theory of low-lying excited electronic states of molecules J. Chem. Phys. 57 3787-92 A more recent overview of much of the EOM, Greens function, and propagator field is given in ... 

In quantum theory, physical systems move in vector spaces that are, unlike those in classical physics, essentially complex. This difference has had considerable impact on the status, interpretation, and mathematics of the theory. These aspects will be discussed in this chapter within the general context of simple molecular systems, while concentrating at the same time on instances in which the electronic states of the molecule are exactly or neatly degenerate. It is hoped... 

The expression for the force on the nuclei, Eq. (89), has the same form as the BO force Eq. (16), but the wave function here is the time-dependent one. As can be shown by perturbation theory, in the limit that the nuclei move very slowly compared to the electrons, and if only one electronic state is involved, the two expressions for the wave function become equivalent. This can be shown by comparing the time-independent equation for the eigenfunction of H i at time t... 

In practice, each CSF is a Slater determinant of molecular orbitals, which are divided into three types inactive (doubly occupied), virtual (unoccupied), and active (variable occupancy). The active orbitals are used to build up the various CSFs, and so introduce flexibility into the wave function by including configurations that can describe different situations. Approximate electronic-state wave functions are then provided by the eigenfunctions of the electronic Flamiltonian in the CSF basis. This contrasts to standard FIF theory in which only a single determinant is used, without active orbitals. The use of CSFs, gives the MCSCF wave function a structure that can be interpreted using chemical pictures of electronic configurations [229]. An interpretation in terms of valence bond sti uctures has also been developed, which is very useful for description of a chemical process (see the appendix in [230] and references cited therein). 

The starting point for the theory of molecular dynamics, and indeed the basis for most of theoretical chemistry, is the separation of the nuclear and electionic motion. In the standard, adiabatic, picture this leads to the concept of nuclei moving over PES corresponding to the electronic states of a system. 

In his classical paper, Renner [7] first explained the physical background of the vibronic coupling in triatomic molecules. He concluded that the splitting of the bending potential curves at small distortions of linearity has to depend on p, being thus mostly pronounced in H electronic state. Renner developed the system of two coupled Schrbdinger equations and solved it for H states in the harmonic approximation by means of the perturbation theory. 

As in the case of H electronic states of tetraatomic molecules, because of generally high degeneracy of zeroth-order vibronic leves only several particular (but important) coupling cases can be handled efficiently in the framework of the pertnrbation theory. We consider the following paiticnlai" cases ... 

In this series of results, we encounter a somewhat unexpected result, namely, when the circle surrounds two conical intersections the value of the line integral is zero. This does not contradict any statements made regarding the general theory (which asserts that in such a case the value of the line integral is either a multiple of 2tu or zero) but it is still somewhat unexpected, because it implies that the two conical intersections behave like vectors and that they arrange themselves in such a way as to reduce the effect of the non-adiabatic coupling terms. This result has important consequences regarding the cases where a pair of electronic states are coupled by more than one conical intersection. 

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