Potential energy global minimum

Characterize a potential energy surface for acertain niimberof atoms, i.e., detect all the local energy minima, the global minimum on the surface, and all the transition states between different minima. 

The curve above shows that as R—the potential energy approaches a constant, which is the energy of the two individual atoms. Further, there is a global minimum for this potential surface at intermediate distances. At very short distances, the energy rises to +°° as the two atoms repel each other. 

As we noted in Chapter 3, the 0° form has lower energy and is in fact the global minimum. The 180° form is a higher energy minimum elsewhere on the potential energy surface. 

Global Minimum. The lowest energy Local Minimum on a Potential Energy Surface. 

Moreover Figure 3 shows the graph of the potential energy of the molecule where E2 and E4 representing structure optimization finished in a local minimum and E6 a global minimum found (internal strain of the molecule minimized). 

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