Potential energy degenerate

The stoi7 begins with studies of the molecular Jahn-Teller effect in the late 1950s [1-3]. The Jahn-Teller theorems themselves [4,5] are 20 years older and static Jahn-Teller distortions of elecbonically degenerate species were well known and understood. Geomebic phase is, however, a dynamic phenomenon, associated with nuclear motions in the vicinity of a so-called conical intersection between potential energy surfaces. 

When two electronie states are degenerate at a particular point in configuration space, the elements of the diabatie potential energy matiix can be modeled as a linear function of the coordinates in the following fonn ... 

Now, we examine the effect of vibronic interactions on the two adiabatic potential energy surfaces of nonlinear molecules that belong to a degenerate electronic state, so-called static Jahn-Teller effect. 

For vei y small vibronic coupling, the quadratic terms in the power series expansion of the electronic Hamiltonian in normal coordinates (see Appendix E) may be considered to be negligible, and hence the potential energy surface has rotational symmetry but shows no separate minima at the bottom of the moat. In this case, the pair of vibronic levels Aj and A2 in < 3 become degenerate by accident, and the D3/, quantum numbers (vi,V2,/2) may be used to label the vibronic levels of the X3 molecule. When the coupling of the... 

For molecules with an even number of electrons, the spin function has only single-valued representations just as the spatial wave function. For these molecules, any degenerate spin-orbit state is unstable in the symmetric conformation since there is always a nontotally symmetric normal coordinate along which the potential energy depends linearly. For example, for an - state of a C3 molecule, the spin function has species da and E that upon... 

At normal bond lengths, the LHK solution usually degenerates to the situation where the two spatial orbitals become identical. The LHK solution for Hp, for example, has a smooth potential energy... 

Hamiltonian contains (fe2/2me r ) 32/3y2 whereas the potential energy part is independent of Y, the energies of the moleeular orbitals depend on the square of the m quantum number. Thus, pairs of orbitals with m= 1 are energetieally degenerate pairs with m= 2 are degenerate, and so on. The absolute value of m, whieh is what the energy depends on, is ealled the X quantum number. Moleeular orbitals with = 0 are ealled a orbitals those with = 1 are 7i orbitals and those with = 2 are 5 orbitals. 

The search for a conical intersection is also successful. The predicted structure is at the left. The predicted energies of the two states—the ground state and the first excited state—differ by about 0.00014 Hartrees, confirming that they are degenerate at these points on the two potential energy surfaces. ... 

Figure 18. Contour plots of the potential energy surfaces of the first three electronic states of H2O. The polar plots depict the movement of one H atom around OH with an OH bond length fixed at 1.07 A. Energies are in electron volts relative to the ground electronic state. The X and B states are degenerate at the conical intersection (denoted by (g)) in the (a) H—OH geometry and (b) H—HO geometry. Reprinted fix)m [75] with permission from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

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