Fuzzy Classical Structures in Genuine Quantum Systems

Fuzzy Classical Structures in Genuine Quantum Systems 

The notions of chemistry and quantum theory are in a state of conflict. Indeed, it must be said that quantum mechanics and traditional chemistry contradict each other at a very fundamental level. Whereas traditional chemistry claims that each nucleus in a molecule is located at some particular (possibly fluctuating) position in space, quantum mechanics asserts that nuclei within a molecule need not have a dispersion-free position at all. 

Copyright 1997 by Academic Press. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. 

FIGURE 1 Hydrogen bond with the proton sitting at some fixed unambiguous position for every moment of time. The proton could either move back and forth (upper part of the figure) or sit at a stationary position in between the two oxygen nuclei (lower part of the figure). 

Such quantum-mechanical molecular states, with respect to which a given nucleus has an ambiguous position, will be referred to here as strange states. This is done to stress the fact that such states are neither predicted by nor admissible in traditional chemistry. In the latter only different mesomeric forms of a given molecule are admitted, and it is not assumed that the molecule is in different mesomeric forms at the same time. In traditional chemistry, the nuclei of a molecule always have an unambiguous position in space and hence the molecule has a nuclear structure. 

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