Nuclear dynamics general reactions

Election nuclear dynamics theory is a direct nonadiababc dynamics approach to molecular processes and uses an electi onic basis of atomic orbitals attached to dynamical centers, whose positions and momenta are dynamical variables. Although computationally intensive, this approach is general and has a systematic hierarchy of approximations when applied in an ab initio fashion. It can also be applied with semiempirical treatment of electronic degrees of freedom [4]. It is important to recognize that the reactants in this approach are not forced to follow a certain reaction path but for a given set of initial conditions the entire system evolves in time in a completely dynamical manner dictated by the inteiparbcle interactions. 

Recently, two basic questions of chemical dynamics have attracted much attention first, is it possible to detect ( film ) the nuclear dynamics directly on the femtosecond time scale and second, is it possible to direct (control) the nuclear dynamics directly as it unfolds These efforts of real-time detection and control of molecular dynamics are also known as femtosecond chemistry. Most of the work on the detection and control of chemical dynamics has focused on unimolecular reactions where the internuclear distances of the initial state are well defined within, of course, the quantum mechanical uncertainty of the initial vibrational state. The discussion in the following builds on Section 7.2.2, and we will in particular focus on the real-time control of chemical dynamics. It should be emphasized that the general concepts discussed in the present section are not limited to reactions in the gas phase. 

This chapter concerns the energetics of charge-transfer (CT) reactions. We will not discuss subjects dealing with nuclear dynamical effects on CT kinetics. " The more specialized topic of employing the liquid-state theories to calculate the solvation component of the reorganization parameters is not considered here. We concentrate instead on the general procedure of the statistical mechanical analysis of the activation barrier to CT, as well as on its connection to optical spectroscopy. Since the very beginning of ET research, steady-state optical spectroscopy has been the major source of reliable information about the activation barrier and preexponential factor for the ET rate. The main focus in this chapter is therefore on the connection between the statistical analysis of the reaction activation barrier to the steady-state optical band shape. 

The Bom-Oppenheimer approximation is not always correct, especially with light nuclei and/or at finite temperature. Under these circumstances, the electronic distribution might be less well described by the solution of a Schroedinger equation. Non-adiabatic effects can be significant in dynamics and chemical reactions. Usually, however, non-adiabatic corrections are small for equilibrium systems at ordinary temperature. As a consequence, it is generally assumed that nuclear dynamics can be treated classically, with motions driven by Bom-Oppenheimer potential energy functions ... 

In general, in the above considerations the coordinate x is presumed to describe nuclear motion normal to the intersection line L of the diabatic.potential energy surfaces of reactants and products. In particular cases, however, the coordinate x can coincide with a dynamically separable reaction coordinate. Then, the whole manydimensional problem of calculating the transition probability for any energy value is simply reduced to a one-dimensional one. Such is, for instance, the situation in a system of oscillators making harmonic vibrations with the same frequency in both the initial and final state /67/ which we considered in Sec.3.1.1. The diabatic surfaces (50.1) then represent two similar (N+1>dimensional rotational paraboloids which intersect in a N-dimensional plane S, and the intersection... 

The approach described for polyatomic photodissociation as a quantum transition can be generalized to describe the dynamics of chemical reactions. Polyatomic photodissociation is a transition from a quasi-bound or bound state to a bound-continuous dissociative state. By extension then, a chemical reaction is a transition from one bound-continuous state (reactants) to another (products). The state of reactants (products) is analogous to the dissociative state and, hence, the results described in Section III can be used to define the nuclear wavefunctions of reactants and of products. Following this analogy, a chemical reaction can be treated as a quantum transition reactants - products, enabling the evaluation of product energy distributions (63,33). 

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