Harmonics, general transformation properties

While we have chosen to proceed here by reducing representations for the full group D3h, it would have been simpler to take advantage of the fact that D3h is the direct product of C3u and C where the plane in the latter is perpendicular to the principal axis of the former. The behaviour of any atomic basis functions with respect to the C3 subgroup is trivial to determine, and there are only two classes of non-trivial operations in C3v. In more general cases, it is often worthwhile to look for such simplifications. It is seldom useful, for instance, to employ the full character table for a group that contains the inversion, or a unique horizontal plane, since the symmetry with respect to these operations can be determined by inspection. With these observations and the transformation properties of spherical harmonics given in the Supplementary Notes, it should be possible to determine the symmetries spanned by sets of atomic basis functions for any molecular system. Finally, with access to the appropriate literature the labour can be eliminated entirely for some cases, since... 

In either case it is helpful to have a table of transformation properties of spherical harmonics like that given in the Supplementary Notes. We shall illustrate the procedure by finding symmetry-adapted basis functions arising from an s function on each F atom in BF3, using full matrix projection operators. We already know that the three atomic basis functions transform as a 0 s, and since the behaviour with respect to the horizontal plane is already known, we can, without loss of generality, work with the subgroup C3u only. We denote the s functions on Fi, F2, and F3 as si, S2, and s3, respectively, and apply our C3u projection operators... 

Since the transformation properties of spherical harmonics are well known, the spherical-tensor notation has some advantages, particularly in the derivation of general theorems however, the reality of cartesian tensors also has its attractions, especially for small values of /. Normally, the moments of a particular three-dimensional molecule are most conveniently given in an x,y,z frame. 

We want to give here also some comments on the definitions of the crystal-field parameters by Wybourne (1965). His crystal-field formalism is sometimes a little bit confusing. First, he introduces the parameters which have the same transformation properties as spherieal harmonies. These parameters are in general complex numbers. Both fij and oeeur. Moreover, his parameters transform as tesseral harmonics, like our parameters do. It is therefore easy to confuse and S. Prather (1961) always uses tesseral harmonies for his parameters and also for his operators. 

In the first part to follow, the equations of motion of a soft solid are written in the harmonic approximation. The matrices that describe the potential, and hence the structure, of the material are then considered in a general way, and their properties under a normal mode transformation are discussed. The same treatment is given to the dissipation terms. The long wavelength end of the spectral density is of interest, and here it seems that detailed matrix calculations can be replaced by simple scaling arguments. This shows how the inertial term, usually absent in molecular problems, is magnified to become important in the continuum limit. 

In the present section a theoretical framework for analysis of vibrational intensities recendy developed by Galabov et al. [146] is presented. Fully corrected for rotational contributions atomic polar tensors are transformed into quantities termed effective bond charges. The effective bond charges are expected to reflect in a generalized manner, polar properties of the valence bonds in molecules. Aside from die usual harmonic approximation no other constraints are imposed on the dipole moment functirm. 

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