Interaction potential, space-fixed coordinate system

These simple relations motivate a more formal approximation in which we first re-expand the interaction potential in a space-fixed ("laboratory-frame") coordinate system as... 

We have derived the total Hamiltonian expressed in a space-fixed (i.e. non-rotating) coordinate system in (2.36), (2.37) and (2.75). We can now simplify the electronic Hamiltonian 3Q,i by transforming the electronic coordinates to the molecule-fixed axis system defined by (2.40) because the Coulombic potential term, when expressed as a function of these new coordinates, is independent of 0, ip and x From a physical standpoint it is obviously sensible to transform the electronic coordinates in this way because under the influence of the electrostatic interactions, the electrons rotate in space with the nuclei. We shall take the opportunity to refer the electron spins to the molecule-fixed axis system in this section also, and leave discussion of the alternative scheme of space quantisation to a later section. Since we assume the electron spin wave function to be completely separable from the spatial (i.e. orbital) wave function,... 

---