Orbitals. Quantum Mechanics in Pictures

Notice that bonds can be strengthened in two different ways, by adding electrons to bonding orbitals, and by removing electrons from antibonding orbitals. The converse also holds. 

The lowest energy molecular orbital of singlet methylene looks like a Is atomic orbital on carbon. The electrons occupying this orbital restrict their motion to the immediate region of the carbon nucleus and do not significantly affect bonding. Because of this restriction, and because the orbital s energy is very low (-11 au), this orbital is referred to as a core orbital and its electrons are referred to as core electrons. 

The next higher energy orbital is much higher in energy (-0.9 au) and it is completely delocalized. The orbital surface consists of a single surface that encompasses all three atoms. This means that this orbital is simultaneously (o) bonding with respect to each CH atom pair. 

Singlet methylene also possesses unoccupied molecular orbitals. The unoccupied orbitals have higher (more positive) energies than the occupied orbitals, and these orbitals, because they are unoccupied, do not describe the electron distribution in singlet methylene. Nevertheless, the shapes of unoccupied orbitals, in particular, the few lowest energy unoccupied orbitals, are worth considering because they provide valuable insight into the methylene s chemical reactivity. 

The lowest-unoccupied molecular orbital is called the LUMO (+0.1 au). The LUMO has nonbonding character, and looks like a 2p atomic orbital on carbon. If this molecule 

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In the classical picture of an electron orbiting round the nucleus it would not surprise us to discover that the electron and the nucleus could each spin on its own axis, just like the earth and the moon, and that each has an angular momentum associated with spinning. Unfortunately, although quantum mechanical treatment gives rise to two new angular momenta, one associated with the electron and one with the nucleus, this simple physical... 

A basis set is the mathematical description of the orbitals within a system (which in turn combine to approximate the total electronic wavefunction) used to perform the theoretical calculation. Larger basis sets more accurately approximate the orbitals by imposing fewer restrictions on the locations of the electrons in space. In the true quantum mechanical picture, electrons have a finite probability of existing anywhere in space this limit corresponds to the infinite basis set expansion in the chart we looked at previously. 

Quantum mechanics provides a mathematical framework that leads to expression (4). In addition, for the hydrogen atom it tells us a great deal about how the electron moves about the nucleus. It does not, however, tell us an exact path along which the electron moves. All that can be done is to predict the probability of finding an electron at a given point in space. This probability, considered over a period of time, gives an averaged picture of how an electron behaves. This description of the electron motion is what we have called an orbital. 

In this paper a method [11], which allows for an a priori BSSE removal at the SCF level, is for the first time applied to interaction densities studies. This computational protocol which has been called SCF-MI (Self-Consistent Field for Molecular Interactions) to highlight its relationship to the standard Roothaan equations and its special usefulness in the evaluation of molecular interactions, has recently been successfully used [11-13] for evaluating Eint in a number of intermolecular complexes. Comparison of standard SCF interaction densities with those obtained from the SCF-MI approach should shed light on the effects of BSSE removal. Such effects may then be compared with those deriving from the introduction of Coulomb correlation corrections. To this aim, we adopt a variational perturbative valence bond (VB) approach that uses orbitals derived from the SCF-MI step and thus maintains a BSSE-free picture. Finally, no bias should be introduced in our study by the particular approach chosen to analyze the observed charge density rearrangements. Therefore, not a model but a theory which is firmly rooted in Quantum Mechanics, applied directly to the electron density p and giving quantitative answers, is to be adopted. Bader s Quantum Theory of Atoms in Molecules (QTAM) [14, 15] meets nicely all these requirements. Such a theory has also been recently applied to molecular crystals as a valid tool to rationalize and quantitatively detect crystal field effects on the molecular densities [16-18]. 

The concepts which we need for understanding the structural trends within covalently bonded solids are most easily introduced by first considering the much simpler system of diatomic molecules. They are well described within the molecular orbital (MO) framework that is based on the overlapping of atomic wave functions. This picture, therefore, makes direct contact with the properties of the individual free atoms which we discussed in the previous chapter, in particular the atomic energy levels and angular character of the valence orbitals. We will see that ubiquitous quantum mechanical concepts such as the covalent bond, overlap repulsion, hybrid orbitals, and the relative degree of covalency versus ionicity all arise naturally from solutions of the one-electron Schrodinger equation for diatomic molecules such as H2, N2, and LiH. 

Quantum mechanics tells us that only certain discrete values of E, the total electron energy, and J, the angular momentum of the electrons are allowed. These discrete states have been depicted in the familiar semiclassical picture of the atom (Fig. 1.1) as a tiny nucleus with electrons rotating about it in discrete orbits. In this book, we will examine nuclear structure and will develop a similar semiclassical picture of the nucleus that will allow us to understand and predict a large range of nuclear phenomena. 

The purpose of this review is to discuss the main conclusions for the electronic structure of benzenoid aromatic molecules of an approach which is much more general than either MO theory or classical VB theory. In particular, we describe some of the clear theoretical evidence which shows that the n electrons in such molecules are described well in terms of localized, non-orthogonal, singly-occupied orbitals. The characteristic properties of molecules such as benzene arise from a profoundly quantum mechanical phenomenon, namely the mode of coupling of the spins of the n electrons. This simple picture is furnished by spin-coupled theory, which incorporates from the start the most significant effects of electron correlation, but which retains a simple, clear-cut visuality. The spin-coupled representation of these systems is, to all intents and purposes, unaltered by the inclusion of additional electron correlation into the wavefunction. 

Because of the superposition of three distinct types of periodic motion with different periods the wavepacket by itself does not reveal a clear picture in the present case, i.e., the classical skeleton is hardly visible through the quantum mechanical flesh . The perfect agreement between the recurrence times of the quantum mechanical wavepacket and the periods of the classical periodic orbits, however, provides convincing evidence that the structures in the absorption spectrum are ultimately the consequence of the three generic unstable periodic orbits. This correlation is... 

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