From first principles

Radiation probes such as neutrons, x-rays and visible light are used to see the structure of physical systems tlirough elastic scattering experunents. Inelastic scattering experiments measure both the structural and dynamical correlations that exist in a physical system. For a system which is in thennodynamic equilibrium, the molecular dynamics create spatio-temporal correlations which are the manifestation of themial fluctuations around the equilibrium state. For a condensed phase system, dynamical correlations are intimately linked to its structure. For systems in equilibrium, linear response tiieory is an appropriate framework to use to inquire on the spatio-temporal correlations resulting from thennodynamic fluctuations. Appropriate response and correlation functions emerge naturally in this framework, and the role of theory is to understand these correlation fiinctions from first principles. This is the subject of section A3.3.2. 

Luce T A and Bennemann K H 1998 Nonlinear optical response of noble metals determined from first-principles electronic structures and wave functions calculation of transition matrix elements P/rys. Rev. B 58 15 821-6... 

The relative simplicity of tlie method and the penetrative nature of the x-rays, yield a technique that is sensitive to elements with Z > 10 down to a few parts per million (ppm) and can be perfonued quantitatively from first principles. The databases for PIXE analysis programs [21, 22 and 23] are typically so well developed as to include accurate fiindamental parameters, allowing the absolute precision of the technique to be around 3% for major elements and 10-20% for trace elements. A major factor m applying the PIXE teclmique is that the bombardmg energy of the... 

Podloucky R, Zeller R and Dederichs P H 1980 Electronic structure of magnetic Impurities calculated from first principles Phys. Rev. B 22 5777... 

Car R 1996 Molecular dynamics from first principles Monte Carlo and Moleoular Dynamios of Condensed Matter Systems vo 49 ed K Binder and G Ciccotti (Bologna Italian Physical Society) pp 601-34... 

In this chapter, we discussed the significance of the GP effect in chemical reactions, that is, the influence of the upper electronic state(s) on the reactive and nonreactive transition probabilities of the ground adiabatic state. In order to include this effect, the ordinary BO equations are extended either by using a HLH phase or by deriving them from first principles. Considering the HLH phase due to the presence of a conical intersection between the ground and the first excited state, the general fomi of the vector potential, hence the effective... 

Absolute Binding Constants from First Principles ... 

All three tasks are generally too complicated to be solved from first principles. They are, therefore, tackled by making use of prior information, and of information that has been condensed into knowledge. The amount of information that has to be processed is often quite large. At present, more than 41 million different compounds are known all have a series of properties, physical, chemical, or biological all can be made in many different ways, by a wide range of reactions all can be characterized by a host of spectra. This immense amount of information can be processed only by electronic means, by the power of the computer. 

SilvestreUi P L and M ParrineUo 1999. Structural, Electronic and Bonding Properties of Liquid Watt from First Principles. Journal of Chemical Physics 111 3572-3580. 

Much of quantum chemistry attempts to make more quantitative these aspects of chemists view of the periodic table and of atomic valence and structure. By starting from first principles and treating atomic and molecular states as solutions of a so-called Schrodinger equation, quantum chemistry seeks to determine what underlies the empirical quantum numbers, orbitals, the aufbau principle and the concept of valence used by spectroscopists and chemists, in some cases, even prior to the advent of quantum mechanics. 

Most of the techniques described in this Chapter are of the ab initio type. This means that they attempt to compute electronic state energies and other physical properties, as functions of the positions of the nuclei, from first principles without the use or knowledge of experimental input. Although perturbation theory or the variational method may be used to generate the working equations of a particular method, and although finite atomic orbital basis sets are nearly always utilized, these approximations do not involve fitting to known experimental data. They represent approximations that can be systematically improved as the level of treatment is enhanced. 

All non-zero integrals over atomic orbitals on the two centers are set equal, as in CNDO/INDO, to an averaged y. Thus, (s sj s s ) = (s s I PbPb) = (PaPa I PbPb) = The two-center Coulomb integrals, rather than being calculated from first principles using s orbitals as in CNDO/INDO, are approximated by an Ohno-Klop-man [K.Ohno, Theor. Chim. Acta, 2, 219 (1964) G. Klopman,... 

In work for which Marcus and Levich separately received the Nobel Prize, it was shown from first principles (37) and ia different contexts that... 

Meridional circulation in two-dimensional stratospheric models has been specified based on observations or general circulation model calculations recendy efforts have been undertaken to calculate circulations from first principles, within the stratospheric models themselves. An important limitation of using models in which circulations are specified is that these caimot be used to study the feedbacks of changing atmospheric composition and temperature on transport, factors which may be important as atmospheric composition is increasingly perturbed. 

Much progress has been made ia understanding how to create and use catalysts, but the design and preparation of practical catalysts stUl rehes on a substantial amount of art that is, the appHcation of known facts and iatuition to trial and error methods. General principles are described ia a number of texts (18—21). Very few completely new catalyst systems have been designed from first principles or completely theoretical considerations. New catalysts are much more likely to be discovered as a result of an adventitious observation than designed by iatent. 

When there is no specular reflectance, the third term in the denominator drops out, in agreement with Eqs. (5-134) and (5-135). When the reflectance is exclusively specular, the denominator becomes 1/Ai i -I- p g/Aifl — P59), easily derivable from first principles. 

Simplified Mass-Transfer Theories In certain simple situations, tne mass-transfer coefficients can be calculated from first principles. The film, penetration, and surface-renewal theories are attempts to extend tnese theoretical calculations to more complex sit-... 

Principles of Rigorous Absorber Design Danckwerts and Alper [Trans. Tn.st. Chem. Eng., 53, 34 (1975)] have shown that when adequate data are available for the Idnetic-reaciion-rate coefficients, the mass-transfer coefficients fcc and /c , the effective interfacial area per unit volume a, the physical solubility or Henry s-law constants, and the effective diffusivities of the various reactants, then the design of a packed tower can be calculated from first principles with considerable precision. 

One of the major uses of molecular simulation is to provide useful theoretical interpretation of experimental data. Before the advent of simulation this had to be done by directly comparing experiment with analytical (mathematical) models. The analytical approach has the advantage of simplicity, in that the models are derived from first principles with only a few, if any, adjustable parameters. However, the chemical complexity of biological systems often precludes the direct application of meaningful analytical models or leads to the situation where more than one model can be invoked to explain the same experimental data. 

Regan, L., DeGrado, W.F. Characterization of a helical protein designed from first principles. Science 241 976-978, 1988. 

Protein structures can be designed from first principles... 

In X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF), an X-ray beam is used to irradiate a specimen, and the emitted fluorescent X rays are analyzed with a crystal spectrometer and scintillation or proportional counter. The fluorescent radiation normally is diffracted by a crystal at different angles to separate the X-ray wavelengths and therefore to identify the elements concentrations are determined from the peak intensities. For thin films XRF intensity-composition-thickness equations derived from first principles are used for the precision determination of composition and thickness. This can be done also for each individual layer of multiple-layer films. 

Crystallography is a very broad science, stretching from crystal-structure determination to crystal physics (especially the systematic study and mathematical analysis of anisotropy), crystal chemistry and the geometrical study of phase transitions in the solid state, and stretching to the prediction of crystal structures from first principles this last is very active nowadays and is entirely dependent on recent advances in the electron theory of solids. There is also a flourishing field of applied crystallography, encompassing such skills as the determination of preferred orientations, alias textures, in polycrystalline assemblies. It would be fair to say that... 

In Britain, a population of thermal reactors fuelled by metallic uranium have remained in use, side by side with more modern ones (to that extent. Lander et al. were not quite correct about the universal abandonment of metallic uranium). In 1956, Cottrell (who was then w orking for the Atomic Energy Authority) identified from first principles a mechanism which would cause metallic (ot) uranium to creep rapidly under small applied stress this was linked with the differential expansion of... 

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