Independent particle states

The one notable exception is the 5d2 3P state of Ba that would be one of the partner states of the first excited bending vibration in this atom. This state has neither the single-lobed distribution expected for a state with one quantum of bending vibration nor the symmetric two-lobed distribution of a pure d2 independent-particle state it is just between these two extremes. This is a sort of antithesis of the first excited states of the antisymmetric stretching mode, the ns(n + l)s 3Se states, which are well described by both the collective and independent-particle approaches in this 3P state, neither picture is adequate. 

Applications of quantum mechanics to chemistry invariably deal with systems (atoms and molecules) that contain more than one particle. Apart from the hydrogen atom, the stationary-state energies caimot be calculated exactly, and compromises must be made in order to estimate them. Perhaps the most useful and widely used approximation in chemistry is the independent-particle approximation, which can take several fomis. Conuiion to all of these is the assumption that the Hamiltonian operator for a system consisting of n particles is approximated by tlie sum... 

It should be mentioned that the single-particle Flamiltonians in general have an infinite number of solutions, so that an uncountable number of wavefiinctions [/ can be generated from them. Very often, interest is focused on the ground state of many-particle systems. Within the independent-particle approximation, this state can be represented by simply assigning each particle to the lowest-lying energy level. If a calculation is... 

A superb treatment of applied molecular orbital theory and its application to organic, inorganic and solid state chemistry. Perhaps the best source for appreciating the power of the independent-particle approximation and its remarkable ability to account for qualitative behaviour in chemical systems. 

Treating an asperity as an independent particle, JKR theory states that the force Ps needed to effect detachment of a spherical asperity from a planar substrate is given by... 

Electron correlations show up in two ways in the measured cross sections. If the initial target state is well described by the independent particle Hartree-Fock approximation, the experimental orbital (6) is the Hartree-Fock orbital. Correlations in the ion can then lead to many transitions for ionisation from this orbital, rather than the expected single transition, the intensities of the lines being proportional to the spectroscopic factors S K... 

The OVGF function method provides a quantitative account of ionisation phenomena when the independent-particle picture of ionisation holds and as such is most applicable in the treatment of outer-valence orbitals. It provides an average absolute error for vertical ionisation energies below 20 eV of 0.25 eV for closed shell molecules. The TDA and ADC(3) methods allow for the breakdown of one particle picture of ionisation and so enable the calculation of the shake up spectra. The ADC(3) is correct up to 3rd order, is size consistent and includes correlation effects in both the initial and final states. 

Although in many cases, particularly in PE spectroscopy, single configurations or Slater determinants 2d> (M+ ) were shown to yield heuristically useful descriptions of the corresponding spectroscopic states 2 f i(M+ ), this is not generally true because the independent particle approximation (which implies that a many-electron wavefunction can be approximated by a single product of one-electron wavefunctions, i.e. MOs 4>, as represented by a Slater determinant 2 j) may break down in some cases. As this becomes particularly evident in polyene radical cations, it seems appropriate to briefly elaborate on methods which allow one to overcome the limitations of single-determinant models. 

The most widely used qualitative model for the explanation of the shapes of molecules is the Valence Shell Electron Pair Repulsion (VSEPR) model of Gillespie and Nyholm (25). The orbital correlation diagrams of Walsh (26) are also used for simple systems for which the qualitative form of the MOs may be deduced from symmetry considerations. Attempts have been made to prove that these two approaches are equivalent (27). But this is impossible since Walsh s Rules refer explicitly to (and only have meaning within) the MO model while the VSEPR method does not refer to (is not confined by) any explicitly-stated model of molecular electronic structure. Thus, any proof that the two approaches are equivalent can only prove, at best, that the two are equivalent at the MO level i.e. that Walsh s Rules are contained in the VSEPR model. Of course, the transformation to localised orbitals of an MO determinant provides a convenient picture of VSEPR rules but the VSEPR method itself depends not on the independent-particle model but on the possibility of separating the total electronic structure of a molecule into more or less autonomous electron pairs which interact as separate entities (28). The localised MO description is merely the simplest such separation the general case is our Eq. (6)... 

Band theory is a one-electron, independent particle theory, which assumes that the electrons are distributed amongst a set of available stationary states following the Fermi-Dirac statistics. The states are given by solutions of the Schrodinger equation... 

Whereas Si and s2 are true one-electron spin operators, Ky is the exchange integral of electrons and in one-electron states i and j (independent particle picture of Hartree-Fock theory assumed). It should be stressed here that in the original work by Van Vleck (80) in 1932 the integral was denoted as Jy but as it is an exchange integral we write it as Ky in order to be in accordance with the notation in quantum chemistry, where Jy denotes a Coulomb integral. 

Generally speaking, the representation in terms of occupation numbers is considered to be an independent quantum-mechanical representation, distinct from the coordinate (or momentum) one. In that case, the occupation numbers for one-particle states are dynamic variables, and operators are the quantities that act on functions of these variables. In this section, second-quantization representation is directly related to coordinate representation in order that in what follows we may have a one-to-one correspondence between quantities derived in each of these representations. 

Nevertheless, thermal averaging is widely used and we define it here explicitly. If we introduce the basis of exact time-independent many-particle states n) with energies En, the averaging over equilibrium state can be written as... 

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