Schrodinger equation hydrogen molecule

For both types of orbitals, the coordinates r, 0, and (j) refer to the position of the electron relative to a set of axes attached to the center on which the basis orbital is located. Although Slater-type orbitals (STOs) are preferred on fundamental grounds (e.g., as demonstrated in Appendices A and B, the hydrogen atom orbitals are of this form and the exact solution of the many-electron Schrodinger equation can be shown to be of this form (in each of its coordinates) near the nuclear centers), STOs are used primarily for atomic and linear-molecule calculations because the multi-center integrals < XaXbl g I XcXd > (each... 

So, let s get a bit more chemical and imagine the formation of an H2 molecule from two separated hydrogen atoms, Ha and Hb, initially an infinite distance apart. Electron 1 is associated with nucleus A, electron 2 with nucleus B, and the terms in the electronic Hamiltonian / ab, ba2 and are all negligible when the nuclei are at infinite separation. Thus the electronic Schrodinger equation becomes... 

The Bom-Oppenheimer approximation is usually very good. For the hydrogen molecule the error is of the order of 10 ", and for systems with heavier nuclei, the approximation becomes better. As we shall see later, it is only possible in a few cases to solve the electronic part of the Schrodinger equation to an accuracy of 10 ", i.e. neglect of the nuclear-electron coupling is usually only a minor approximation compared with other errors. 

In the asymptotic region, an electron approximately experiences a Z /f potential, where Z is the charge of the molecule-minus-one-electron ( Z = 1 in the case of a neutral molecule) and r the distance between the electron and the center of the charge repartition of the molecule-minus -one-electron. Thus the ip orbital describing the state of that electron must be close to the asymptotic form of the irregular solution of the Schrodinger equation for the hydrogen-like atom with atomic number Z. ... 

This, at first glance innocuous-looking functional FHK[p] is the holy grail of density functional theory. If it were known exactly we would have solved the Schrodinger equation, not approximately, but exactly. And, since it is a universal functional completely independent of the system at hand, it applies equally well to the hydrogen atom as to gigantic molecules such as, say, DNA FHK[p] contains the functional for the kinetic energy T[p] and that for the electron-electron interaction, Eee[p], The explicit form of both these functionals lies unfortunately completely in the dark. However, from the latter we can extract at least the classical Coulomb part J[p], since that is already well known (recall Section 2.3),... 

Calculations of the electronic structure of molecules, crystals and surfaces are often performed in atomic units. They are defined by setting the most important constants equal to unity h — eo — me — 1, where me is the electronic mass. The Coulomb law is written in electrostatic units V(r) = q/r, so that the time-independent Schrodinger equation for the hydrogen atom takes on the simple form ... 

Up to this point, we have considered the nonrelativistic Schrodinger equation. However, to calculate AEs to an accuracy of a few kJ/mol, it is necessary to account for relativistic effects, even for molecules containing only hydrogen and first-row atoms. Fortunately, the major relativistic contributions to the AEs of such molecules - the mass-velocity (MV), one-electron Darwin (ID), and first-order spin-orbit (SO) terms - are easily obtained [58]. 

In the MO approach molecular orbitals are expressed as a linear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO) atomic orbitals (AO), in return, are determined from the approximate numerical solution of the electronic Schrodinger equation for each of the parent atoms in the molecule. This is the reason why hydrogen-atom-like wavefunctions continue to be so important in quantum mechanics. Mathematically, MO-LCAO means that the wave-functions of the molecule containing N atoms can be expressed as... 

For molecules with more than one electron, precise solutions become even more difficult and time consuming, and additional approximations are sought. The simplest molecule is that of hydrogen, where there are two nuclei A and B, and two electrons 1 and 2. The potential energy of the system is the sum of six electrostatic terms the four attractive terms between A-1, A-2, B-1, and B-2, and the two repulsive terms between A-B and 1-2. We seek solutions to the Schrodinger equation of this hydrogen molecule, and the solution is assumed to be a linear combination of the products of the atomic orbitals, of nucleus A associated with electron 1 multiplied by nucleus B associated with electron 2, plus nucleus A associated with electron 2 multiplied by... 

Quantum mechanics describes molecules in terms of interactions among nuclei and electrons, and molecular geometry in terms of minimum energy arrangements of nuclei. All quantum mechanical methods ultimately trace back to the Schrodinger equation, which for the special case of hydrogen atom (a single particle in three dimensions) may be solved exactly. ... 

The many-electron Schrodinger equation cannot be solved exactly (or at least has not been solved) even for a simple two-electron system such as helium atom or hydrogen molecule. Approximations need to be introduced to provide practical methods. 

This review has attempted to illustrate the relevance and the widespread utility of the CM model. Indeed, the author believes it is difficult to specify any area of structural or mechanistic chemistry where the CM approach is not applicable. The reason is not hard to find the CM model has its roots in the Schrodinger equation and as such its relevance to chemistry cannot be easily overstated. Even the fundamental chemical concept of a covalent bond derives from the CM approach. The covalent bond (e.g. in H2) owes its energy to the configuration mix HfiH <— H H. A wave-function for the hydrogen molecule based on just one spin-paired form does not lead to a stable bond. Both spin forms are necessary. Addition of ionic configurations improves the bond further and in the case of heteroatomic bonds generates polar covalent bonds. 

Let us consider what happens as two s-valent atoms A and are brought together from infinity to form the AB diatomic molecule as illustrated schematically in Fig. 3.1. The more deeply bound energy level EA could represent, for example, the hydrogenic Is orbital (EA = —13.6 eV), whereas the less deeply bound energy level EB could represent lithium s 2s orbital (EB = — 5.5 eV. cf Fig. 2.16). Each free atomic orbital satisfies its own effective one-electron Schrodinger equation (cf eqn (2.59)), namely... 

Equation (9.38), if restricted to two particles, is identical in form to the radial component of the electronic Schrodinger equation for the hydrogen atom expressed in polar coordinates about the system s center of mass. In the case of the hydrogen atom, solution of the equation is facilitated by the simplicity of the two-particle system. In rotational spectroscopy of polyatomic molecules, the kinetic energy operator is considerably more complex in its construction. For purposes of discussion, we will confine ourselves to two examples that are relatively simple, presented without derivation, and then offer some generalizations therefrom. More advanced treatises on rotational spectroscopy are available to readers hungering for more. 

Unfortunately, the Schrodinger equation can be solved exactly only for one-electron systems such as the hydrogen atom. If it could be solved exactly for molecules containing two or more electrons,3 we would have a precise picture of the shape of the orbitals available to each electron (especially for the important ground state) and the energy for each orbital. Since exact solutions are not available, drastic approximations must be made. There are two chief general methods of approximation the molecular-orbital method and the valence-bond method. 

In principle, it should be possible to obtain the electronic energy levels of the molecules as a solution of the Schrodinger equation, if inter-electronic and internuclear cross-coulombic terms are included in the potential energy for the Hamiltonian. But the equation can be solved only if it can be broken up into equations which are functions of one variable at a time. A simplifying feature is that because of the much larger mass of the nucleus the motion of the electrons can be treated as independent of that of the nucleus. This is known as the Bom-Oppen-heimer approximation. Even with this simplification, the exact solution has been possible for the simplest of molecules, that is, the hydrogen molecule ion, H + only, and with some approximations for the H2 molecule. 

During this period, accurate solutions for the electronic structure of helium (1) and the hydrogen molecule (2) were obtained in order to verify that the Schrodinger equation was useful. Most of the effort, however, was devoted to developing a simple quantum model of electronic structure. Hartree (3) and others developed the self-consistent-field model for the structure of light atoms. For heavier atoms, the Thomas-Fermi model (4) based on total charge density rather than individual orbitals was used. 

In Chapter 4,1 discussed the concept of an idealized dihydrogen molecule where the electrons did not repel each other. After making the Bom-Oppenheimer approximation, we found that the electronic Schrodinger equation separated into two independent equations, one for either electron. These equations are the ones appropriate to the hydrogen molecule ion. 

Following the development of quantum theory by Heisenberg [1] and Schrodinger [2] and a few further discoveries, the basic principles of the structure of atoms and molecules were described around 1930. Unfortunately, the complexity of the Schrodinger equation increases dramatically with the number of electrons involved in a system, and thus for a long time the hydrogen and helium atoms and simple molecules as H2 were the only species whose properties could really be calculated from these first principles. In 1929, Dirac [3] wrote ... 

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