Schrodinger equation, approximations

If there is an angular dependence of the potential function, it is still possible to separate the Schrodinger equation approximately in polar coordinates if the angular barriers are much lower than the barrier to planarity. As mentioned earlier, Gwinn et al.34 have given an excellent treatment of this case. This has been applied to the interpretation of the microwave and far infrared spectra of tetrahydrofuran and 1,3-dioxolane36, 38 Equation (3.33) may be transformed to mass weighted polar coordinates... 

One method for solving the Schrodinger equation approximately for many electrons is density functional theory. In this theory (given in its practical form by the Kohn-Sham equations) one solves a single electron Schrodinger equation with an effective potential which depends on the total electron density. The one electron eigenvalue problem can be written (in atomic units) ... 

The quantum mechanical treatment of a hamionic oscillator is well known. Real vibrations are not hamionic, but the lowest few vibrational levels are often very well approximated as being hamionic, so that is a good place to start. The following description is similar to that found in many textbooks, such as McQuarrie (1983) [2]. The one-dimensional Schrodinger equation is... 

Peskin U and Steinberg M 1998 A temperature-dependent Schrodinger equation based on a time-dependent self consistent field approximation J. Chem. Phys. 109 704... 

The mixed, v t — % notation here has historic causes.) The Schrodinger equation is obtained from the nuclear Lagrangean by functionally deriving the latter with respect to t /. To get the exact form of the Schrodinger equation, we must let N in Eq. (95) to be equal to the dimension of the electronic Hilbert space (viz., 00), but we shall soon come to study approximations in which N is finite and even small (e.g., 2 or 3). The appropriate nuclear Lagrangean density is for an arbitrary electronic states... 

When the wave function is completely general and pennitted to vary in the entire Hilbert space the TDVP yields the time-dependent Schrodinger equation. However, when the possible wave function variations are in some way constrained, such as is the case for a wave function restricted to a particular functional form and represented in a finite basis, then the corresponding action generates a set of equations that approximate the time-dependent Schrodinger equation. 

In Section II, molecular dynamics within the BO approximation was introduced. As shown in Appendix A, the full nuclear Schrodinger equation is, however. 

The familiar BO approximation is obtained by ignoring the operators A completely. This results in the picture of the nuclei moving over the PES provided by the electrons, which are moving so as to instantaneously follow the nuclear motion. Another common level of approximation is to exclude the off-diagonal elements of this operator matrix. This is known as the Bom-Huang, or simply the adiabatic, approximation (see [250] for further details of the possible approximations and nomenclature associated with the nuclear Schrodinger equation). 

We will study the equations of motion that result from inserting all this in the full Schrodinger equation, Eq. (1). However, we would like to remind the reader that not the derivation of these equations of motion is the main topic here but the question of the quality of the underlying approximations. 

In making certain mathematical approximations to the Schrodinger equation, we can equate derived terms directly to experiment and replace dilTiciilL-to-calculate mathematical expressions with experimental values. In other situation s, we introduce a parameter for a mathematical expression and derive values for that parameter by fitting the results of globally calculated results to experiment. Quantum chemistry has developed two groups of researchers ... 

It was stated above that the Schrodinger equation cannot be solved exactly for any molecular systems. However, it is possible to solve the equation exactly for the simplest molecular species, Hj (and isotopically equivalent species such as ITD" ), when the motion of the electrons is decoupled from the motion of the nuclei in accordance with the Bom-Oppenheimer approximation. The masses of the nuclei are much greater than the masses of the electrons (the resting mass of the lightest nucleus, the proton, is 1836 times heavier than the resting mass of the electron). This means that the electrons can adjust almost instantaneously to any changes in the positions of the nuclei. The electronic wavefunction thus depends only on the positions of the nuclei and not on their momenta. Under the Bom-Oppenheimer approximation the total wavefunction for the molecule can be written in the following form ... 

Whereas the tight-binding approximation works well for certain types of solid, for other s. items it is often more useful to consider the valence electrons as free particles whose motion is modulated by the presence of the lattice. Our starting point here is the Schrodinger equation for a free particle in a one-dimensional, infinitely large box ... 

Approximation Methods Can be Used When Exact Solutions to the Schrodinger Equation Can Not be Eound. 

RPA, and CPHF. Time-dependent Hartree-Fock (TDFIF) is the Flartree-Fock approximation for the time-dependent Schrodinger equation. CPFIF stands for coupled perturbed Flartree-Fock. The random-phase approximation (RPA) is also an equivalent formulation. There have also been time-dependent MCSCF formulations using the time-dependent gauge invariant approach (TDGI) that is equivalent to multiconfiguration RPA. All of the time-dependent methods go to the static calculation results in the v = 0 limit. 

Both molecular and quantum mechanics methods rely on the Born-Oppenheimer approximation. In quantum mechanics, the Schrodinger equation (1) gives the wave functions and energies of a molecule. 

The quantum mechanics methods in HyperChem differ in how they approximate the Schrodinger equation and how they compute potential energy. The ab initio method expands molecular orbitals into a linear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO) and does not introduce any further approximation. 

NDO calculations use the Hartree-Fock (HE) approximation to solve the Schrodinger equation. HE methods deal with several kinds of electron-electron interactions. By understanding these interactions, you can appreciate differences between the NDO methods and gain insight into why the NDO approximation works well or fails. 

HyperChem s semi-empirical calculations solve (approximately) the Schrodinger equation for this electronic Hamiltonian leading to an electronic wave function I eiecW for the electrons ... 

Solutions to a Schrodinger equation for this last Hamiltonian (7) describe the vibrational, rotational, and translational states of a molecular system. This release of HyperChem does not specifically explore solutions to the nuclear Schrodinger equation, although future releases may. Instead, as is often the case, a classical approximation is made replacing the Hamiltonian by the classical energy ... 

Molecular quantum mechanics finds the solution to a Schrodinger equation for an electronic Hamiltonian, Hgjg., that gives a total energy, Egjg(-(R) + V (R,R). Repeated solutions at different nuclear configurations, R, lead to some approximate potential energy sur-... 

Rather than solve a Schrodinger equation with the Nuclear Hamiltonian (above), a common approximation is to assume that atoms are heavy enough so that classical mechanics is a good enough approximation. Motion of the particles on the potential surface, according to the laws of classical mechanics, is then the subject of classical trajectory analysis or molecular dynamics. These come about by replacing Equation (7) on page 164 with its classical equivalent ... 

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