Schrodinger equation molecular properties

Statistical mechanics is the mathematical means to calculate the thermodynamic properties of bulk materials from a molecular description of the materials. Much of statistical mechanics is still at the paper-and-pencil stage of theory. Since quantum mechanicians cannot exactly solve the Schrodinger equation yet, statistical mechanicians do not really have even a starting point for a truly rigorous treatment. In spite of this limitation, some very useful results for bulk materials can be obtained. 

Electronic structure methods are aimed at solving the Schrodinger equation for a single or a few molecules, infinitely removed from all other molecules. Physically this corresponds to the situation occurring in the gas phase under low pressure (vacuum). Experimentally, however, the majority of chemical reactions are carried out in solution. Biologically relevant processes also occur in solution, aqueous systems with rather specific pH and ionic conditions. Most reactions are both qualitatively and quantitatively different under gas and solution phase conditions, especially those involving ions or polar species. Molecular properties are also sensitive to the environment. 

Thus, the electron density already provides all the ingredients that we identified as being necessary for setting up the system specific Hamiltonian and it seems at least very plausible that in fact p( ) suffices for a complete determination of all molecular properties (of course, this does not relieve us from the task of actually solving the corresponding Schrodinger equation and all the difficulties related to this). As noted by Handy, 1994, these very simple and beautifully intuitive arguments in favor of density functional theory are attributed to E. B. Wilson. So the answer to the question posed in the caption to this section is certainly a loud and clear Yes . 

The solute-solvent system, from the physical point of view, is nothing but a system that can be decomposed in a determined collection of electrons and nuclei. In the many-body representation, in principle, solving the global time-dependent Schrodinger equation with appropriate boundary conditions would yield a complete description for all measurable properties [47], This equation requires a definition of the total Hamiltonian in coordinate representation H(r,X), where r is the position vector operator for all electrons in the sample, and X is the position vector operator of the nuclei. In molecular quantum mechanics, as it is used in this section, H(r,X) is the Coulomb Hamiltonian[46]. The global wave function A(r,X,t) is obtained as a solution of the equation ... 

Much information of interest for atomic and molecular systems involves properties other than energy, usually observed via the energy shifts generated by coupling to some external field. The desired property is then the derivative of the energy with respect to the external field, which may be obtained by two different approaches. The finite-field method solves the Schrodinger equation in the presence of the external field, yielding... 

Schrodinger equation. When the molecule is too large and difficult for quantum mechanical calculations, or the molecule interacts with many other molecules or an external field, we turn to the methods of molecular mechanics with empirical force fields. We compute and obtain numerical values of the partition functions, instead of precise formulas. The computation of thermodynamic properties proceeds by using a number of techniques, of which the most prominent are the molecular dynamics and the Monte Carlo methods. 

Note that nuclear mass does not appear in the electronic Schrodinger equation. To the extent that the Bom-Oppenheimer approximation is valid, this means that mass effects (isotope effects) on molecular properties and chemical reactivities are of different origin. 

The quantum theory of molecular collisions in external fields described in this chapter is based on the solutions of the time-independent Schrodinger equation. The scattering formalism considered here can be used to calculate the collision properties of molecules in the presence of static electric or magnetic fields as well as in nonresonant AC fields. In the latter case, the time-dependent problem can be reduced to the time-independent one by means of the Floquet theory, discussed in the previous section. We will consider elastic or inelastic but chemically nonreac-tive collisions of molecules in an external field. The extension of the formalism to reactive scattering problems for molecules in external fields has been described in Ref. [12]. 

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. 

Within the context of the Bom-Oppenheimer approximation, the potential energy surface may be regarded as a property of an empirical molecular formula. With a defined PES, it is possible to formulate and solve Schrodinger equations for nuclear motion (as opposed to electronic motion)... 

We may thus hope to obtain reliable estimates of molecular structure and properties by determining the eigenfunctions and eigenvalues E of the Schrodinger equation... 

---