Born–Oppenheimer Approximation

Author(s):  
Marek S. Wartak ◽  
Ching-Yao Fong
Author(s):  
Niels Engholm Henriksen ◽  
Flemming Yssing Hansen

This introductory chapter considers first the relation between molecular reaction dynamics and the major branches of physical chemistry. The concept of elementary chemical reactions at the quantized state-to-state level is discussed. The theoretical description of these reactions based on the time-dependent Schrödinger equation and the Born–Oppenheimer approximation is introduced and the resulting time-dependent Schrödinger equation describing the nuclear dynamics is discussed. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of matter at thermal equilibrium, focusing at the Boltzmann distribution. Thus, the Boltzmann distribution for vibrational, rotational, and translational degrees of freedom is discussed and illustrated.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bin Zhao ◽  
Shanyu Han ◽  
Christopher L. Malbon ◽  
Uwe Manthe ◽  
David. R. Yarkony ◽  
...  

AbstractThe Born–Oppenheimer approximation, assuming separable nuclear and electronic motion, is widely adopted for characterizing chemical reactions in a single electronic state. However, the breakdown of the Born–Oppenheimer approximation is omnipresent in chemistry, and a detailed understanding of the non-adiabatic dynamics is still incomplete. Here we investigate the non-adiabatic quenching of electronically excited OH(A2Σ+) molecules by H2 molecules using full-dimensional quantum dynamics calculations for zero total nuclear angular momentum using a high-quality diabatic-potential-energy matrix. Good agreement with experimental observations is found for the OH(X2Π) ro-vibrational distribution, and the non-adiabatic dynamics are shown to be controlled by stereodynamics, namely the relative orientation of the two reactants. The uncovering of a major (in)elastic channel, neglected in a previous analysis but confirmed by a recent experiment, resolves a long-standing experiment–theory disagreement concerning the branching ratio of the two electronic quenching channels.


Author(s):  
Yafu Guan ◽  
Changjian Xie ◽  
David R. Yarkony ◽  
Hua Guo

Nonadiabatic dynamics, which goes beyond the Born-Oppenheimer approximation, has increasingly been shown to play an important role in chemical processes, particularly those involving electronically excited states. Understanding multistate dynamics requires...


Plasma ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 294-308
Author(s):  
William A. Angermeier ◽  
Thomas G. White

Wave packet molecular dynamics (WPMD) has recently received a lot of attention as a computationally fast tool with which to study dynamical processes in warm dense matter beyond the Born–Oppenheimer approximation. These techniques, typically, employ many approximations to achieve computational efficiency while implementing semi-empirical scaling parameters to retain accuracy. We investigated three of the main approximations ubiquitous to WPMD: a restricted basis set, approximations to exchange, and the lack of correlation. We examined each of these approximations in regard to atomic and molecular hydrogen in addition to a dense hydrogen plasma. We found that the biggest improvement to WPMD comes from combining a two-Gaussian basis with a semi-empirical correction based on the valence-bond wave function. A single parameter scales this correction to match experimental pressures of dense hydrogen. Ultimately, we found that semi-empirical scaling parameters are necessary to correct for the main approximations in WPMD. However, reducing the scaling parameters for more ab-initio terms gives more accurate results and displays the underlying physics more readily.


1976 ◽  
Vol 31 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 374-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. U. Stieda ◽  
E. Tiemann ◽  
T. Törring ◽  
J. Hoeft

Abstract The rotational spectra of GeS and GeSe were measured in the frequency range of 66 GHz to 110 GHz with high precision. The breakdown of the Born-Oppenheimer approximation was observed for the rotational constant yol. With the known molecular 37-factor and the electric dipole moment the adiabatic part of the Born-Oppenheimer correction can be extracted from the primary observa-tion on y01. The adiabatic correction is very similar in both molecules but differs from the results in the earlier measurements on PbS.


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