Molecular-orbital description of doubly excited atomic states generalized to arbitrary dimension

Journal Article · Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 1992 · Physical Review A. General Physics; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.46.2410· OSTI ID:7274244

Rost, J M; Sung, S M; Herschbach, D R ^[1]; Briggs, J S ^[2]

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1. Department of Chemistry, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 (United States)
2. Fakultaet fuer Physik, Albert-Ludwigs-Universitaet, D-7800 Freiburg (Germany)

The molecular-orbital description of two-electron atoms (J. M. Feagin and J. S. Briggs, Phys. Rev. A 37, 4599 (1988)), derived from H{sub 2}{sup +} by interchanging the roles of electrons and nuclei, is generalized to {ital D} dimensions. For H{sub 2}{sup +} itself there exist myriad exact interdimensional degeneracies because {ital D}{r arrow}{ital D}+2 is equivalent to {ital m}{r arrow}{ital m}+1, augmenting by unity the projection of the electronic angular momentum on the internuclear axis. When the molecular orbitals (MO's) are transcribed to treat two-electron motion, additional constraints limit the exact degeneracies to states in {ital D}=3 and 5, but many approximate degeneracies persist. Since the MO description emphasizes rotational properties of the two-electron atom, the link between dimension and orbital angular momentum is a pervasive feature. We use this link to classify groups of quasidegenerate doubly excited atomic energies and to explain striking similarities among certain pairs of hyperspherical or molecular-orbital two-electron potential curves.

• OSTI ID: 7274244
• Journal Information: Physical Review A. General Physics; (United States), Journal Name: Physical Review A. General Physics; (United States) Vol. 46:5; ISSN 1050-2947; ISSN PLRAA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

664100* -- Theory of Electronic Structure of Atoms & Molecules-- (1992-)
74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
ATOMS
CORRELATIONS
ELECTRON CORRELATION
ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE
ELEMENTS
ENERGY-LEVEL TRANSITIONS
EXCITATION
FLUIDS
GASES
HELIUM
ISOELECTRONIC ATOMS
MANY-BODY PROBLEM
MOLECULAR ORBITAL METHOD
NONMETALS
RARE GASES
TWO-BODY PROBLEM