Least Motion Principle and the Mechanisms of Pericyclic Reactions

5 Least Motion Principle and the Mechanisms of Pericyclic Reactions 

Although the above criterion allowing a simple estimate of the relative ease of concerted and nonconcerted reaction paths is certainly interesting and useful, the detailed analysis of the reaction mechanism in terms of More O Ferrall diagrams 

On the basis of this topological density matrix it is then possible to introduce the similarity index K (Eq. 95), quantitatively characterizing the differences in the 

The values of this index are again bounded by the inequality (96) the maximiun value of rniity attains this index for two identical structures and with increasing deviations between the structures its values monotonously decrease. 

The importance of this index for the variational formulation of the least motion principle arises from the following simple idea. Let us suppose that we are on the 

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