Degenerate Irreducible Representations

The energy level of an an /-fold degenerate eigenstate can be labelled according to an /-fold degenerate irreducible representation of the synmietry group, as we now show. 

Whenever a fiinction can be written as a product of two or more fiinctions, each of which belongs to one of the synnnetry classes, the symmetry of the product fiinction is the direct product of the syimnetries of its constituents. This direct product is obtained in non-degenerate cases by taking the product of the characters for each symmetry operation. For example, the fiinction xy will have a symmetry given by the direct product of the syimnetries of v and ofy this direct product is obtained by taking the product of the characters for each synnnetry operation. In this example it may be seen that, for each operation, the product of the characters for Bj and B2 irreducible representations gives the character of the representation, so xy transfonns as A2. 

Case (c).- a0< produces a set of functions , which is independent of the set la, which forms a basis for the irreducible representation Ay(u) of H, which is inequivalent to A (u), but which has the same dimension. Df corresponds to two inequivalent irreducible representations of H, A (u), and A (u), such that in this case the anti-unitary operators cause A (u) and A (u) to become degenerate. 

To see why this is so, let us attempt to apply the procedure of Section II.B to a bound-state wave function. This is illustrated schematically in Fig. 19. It is clear immediately that we cannot construct an unsymmetric in the double space, because each bound-state eigenfunction must be an irreducible representation of the double-space symmetry group. Thus a bound-state function in the double space is necessarily symmetric or antisymmetric under R2k, and is thus either a Fq or a Fn function. For a Fq function, we have Fn = 0 (since and Fn cannot form a degenerate pair), which implies [from Eq. (6)] that... 

An example of the application of Eq. (47) is provided by the group < 3v whose symmetry operations are defined by Eqs. (18). If the same arbitrary function,

symmetry operation can be worked out, as shown in the last column of Table 13. With the use of the projection operator defined by Eq. (47) and the character table (Table 6), it is found (problem 16) that the coordinate z is totally symmetric (representation Ai). However, it is the sum xy + zx that is preserved in the doubly degenerate representation, E. It should not be surprising that the functions xy and zx are projected as the sum, because it was the sum of the diagonal elements (the trace) of the irreducible representation that was employed in each case in the... 

Irreducible representations (IRREPs), permutational symmetry degenerate/near-degenerate vibrational levels, 728-733... 

Distribution of the two additional electrons to 8 required for dianion formation among the degenerate LUMO orbitals of E, symmetry gives rise to four new states, since, within the 5v symmetry group, the direct product Ej Ej may be reduced to a sum of Aj, and 2 irreducible representations. The A2 state represents a triplet, while Aj and 2 are singlet states. 

Problem 10-5. In a homonuclear diatomic molecule, taking the molecular axis as z, the pair of LCAO-MO s tpi = 2p A + PxB and tp2 = 2 PyA + 2 PyB forms a basis for a degenerate irreducible representation of D h, as does the pair 3 = 2pxA PxB and 4 = PxA — PxB Identify the symmetry species of these wave functions. Write down the four-by-four matrices for the direct product representation by examining the effect of the group elements on the products 0i 03, 0i 04, V 2 03) and 02 04- Verify that the characters of the direct product representation are the products of the characters of the individual representations. 

Some of Fock s terminology may be mysterious to the modern reader. In particular, degenerate energy levels are energy eigenvalues whose eigenspaces are reducible (i.e., not irreducible) representations. 

It is convenient if the symmetry orbitals belonging to a degenerate irreducible representation are made orthogonal to each other and this is achieved in the present case by taking combinations which are the sum... 

Therefore, two of the four lowest it energy levels are doubly degenerate and the other two are nondegenerate moreover, since no irreducible representation occurs more than once in (9.87), we can obtain the correct linear combinations for the six lowest it MOs without solving a secular equation. 

Just as group theory enables one to find symmetry-adapted orbitals, which simplify the solution of the MO secular equation, group theory enables one to find symmetry-adapted displacement coordinates, which simplify the solution of the vibrational secular equation. We first show that the matrices describing the transformation properties of any set of degenerate normal coordinates form an irreducible representation of the molecular point group. The proof is based on the potential-energy expression for vibration, (6.23) and (6.33) ... 

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