Structure And Dynamics Of Atoms And Molecules Conceptual Trends

The rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full Ecclesiastes What is quantum chemistry? The straightforward answer is that it is what quan tum chemists do. But it must be admitted, that in contrast to physicists and chemists, "quantum chemists" seem to be a rather ill-defined category of scientists. Quantum chemists are more or less physicists (basically theoreticians), more or less chemists, and by and large, computationists. But first and foremost, we, quantum chemists, are conscious beings. We may safely guess that quantum chemistry was one of the first areas in the natural sciences to lie on the boundaries of many disciplines. We may certainly claim that quantum chemists were the first to use computers for really large scale calculations. The scope of the problems which quantum chemistry wishes to answer and which, by its unique nature, only quantum chemistry can answer is growing daily. Retrospectively we may guess that many of those problems meet a daily need, or are say, technical in some sense. The rest are fundamental or conceptual. The daily life of most quantum chemists is usually filled with grasping the more or less technical problems. But it is at least as important to devote some time to the other kind of problems whose solution will open up new perspectives for both quantum chemistry itself and for the natural sciences in general.

`Quantum Chemistry [the branch of Computational Chemistry that applies the laws of Quantum Mechanics to chemical systems] is one of the most dynamic fields of contemporary chemistry, providing a solid foundation for all of chemistry, and serving as the basis for practical, computational methodologies with applications in virtually all branches of chemistry ... The increased sophistication, accuracy and scope of the theory of chemistry are due to a large extent to the spectacular development of quantum chemistry, and in this book the authors have made a remarkable effort to provide a modern account of the field.' From the Foreword by Paul Mezey, University of Saskatchewan. Quantum Chemistry: Fundamentals to Applications develops quantum chemistry all the way from the fundamentals, found in Part I, through the applications that make up Part II. The applications include: molecular structure; spectroscopy; thermodynamics; chemical reactions; solvent effects; and excited state chemistry. The importance of this field is underscored by the fact that the 1998 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded for the development of Quantum Chemistry.

The rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full Ecclesiastes What is quantum chemistry? The straightforward answer is that it is what quan tum chemists do. But it must be admitted, that in contrast to physicists and chemists, "quantum chemists" seem to be a rather ill-defined category of scientists. Quantum chemists are more or less physicists (basically theoreticians), more or less chemists, and by large, computationists. But first and foremost, we, quantum chemists; are conscious beings. We may safely guess that quantum chemistry was one of the first areas in the natural sciences to lie on the boundaries of many disciplines. We may certainly claim that quantum chemists were the first to use computers for really large scale calculations. The scope of the problems which quantum chemistry wishes to answer and which, by its unique nature, only quantum chemistry can answer is growing daily. Retrospectively we may guess that many of those problems meet a daily need, or are say, technical in some sense. The rest are fundamental or conceptual. The daily life of most quantum chemists is usually filled with grasping the more or less technical problems. But it is at least as important to devote some time to the other kind of problems whose solution will open up new perspectives for both quantum chemistry itself and for the natural sciences in general.

The evolution of a discipline at the intersection of physics, chemistry, and mathematics. Quantum chemistry—a discipline that is not quite physics, not quite chemistry, and not quite applied mathematics—emerged as a field of study in the 1920s. It was referred to by such terms as mathematical chemistry, subatomic theoretical chemistry, molecular quantum mechanics, and chemical physics until the community agreed on the designation of quantum chemistry. In Neither Physics Nor Chemistry, Kostas Gavroglu and Ana Simões examine the evolution of quantum chemistry into an autonomous discipline, tracing its development from the publication of early papers in the 1920s to the dramatic changes brought about by the use of computers in the 1970s. The authors focus on the culture that emerged from the creative synthesis of the various traditions of chemistry, physics, and mathematics. They examine the concepts, practices, languages, and institutions of this new culture as well as the people who established it, from such pioneers as Walter Heitler and Fritz London, Linus Pauling, and Robert Sanderson Mulliken, to later figures including Charles Alfred Coulson, Raymond Daudel, and Per-Olov Löwdin. Throughout, the authors emphasize six themes: epistemic aspects and the dilemmas caused by multiple approaches; social issues, including academic politics, the impact of textbooks, and the forging of alliances; the contingencies that arose at every stage of the developments in quantum chemistry; the changes in the field when computers were available to perform the extraordinarily cumbersome calculations required; issues in the philosophy of science; and different styles of reasoning.

Per-Olov Löwdin's stature has been a symbol of the world of quantum theory during the past five decades, through his basic contributions to the development of the conceptual framework of Quantum Chemistry and introduction of the fundamental concepts; through a staggering number of regular summer schools, winter institutes, innumerable lectures at Uppsala, Gainesville and elsewhere, and Sanibel Symposia; by founding the International Journal of Quantum Chemistry and Advances in Quantum Chemistry; and through his vision of the possible and his optimism for the future, which has inspired generations of physicists, chemists, mathematicians, and biologists to devote their lives to molecular electronic theory and dynamics, solid state, and quantum biology. Fundamental World of Quantum Chemistry: Volumes I, II and III form a collection of papers dedicated to the memory of Per-Olov Löwdin. These volumes are of interest to a broad audience of quantum, theoretical, physical, biological, and computational chemists; atomic, molecular, and condensed matter physicists; biophysicists; mathematicians working in many-body theory; and historians and philosophers of natural science. The volumes will be accessible to all levels, from students, PhD students, and postdocs to their supervisors.

Per-Olov Löwdin's stature has been a symbol of the world of quantum theory during the past five decades, through his basic contributions to the development of the conceptual framework of Quantum Chemistry and introduction of the fundamental concepts; through a staggering number of regular summer schools, winter institutes, innumerable lectures at Uppsala, Gainesville and elsewhere, and Sanibel Symposia; by founding the International Journal of Quantum Chemistry and Advances in Quantum Chemistry; and through his vision of the possible and his optimism for the future, which has inspired generations of physicists, chemists, mathematicians, and biologists to devote their lives to molecular electronic theory and dynamics, solid state, and quantum biology. Fundamental World of Quantum Chemistry: Volumes I, II and III form a collection of papers dedicated to the memory of Per-Olov Löwdin. These volumes are of interest to a broad audience of quantum, theoretical, physical, biological, and computational chemists; atomic, molecular, and condensed matter physicists; biophysicists; mathematicians working in many-body theory; and historians and philosophers of natural science.

Of all the different areas in computational chemistry, density functional theory (DFT) enjoys the most rapid development. Even at the level of the local density approximation (LDA), which is computationally less demanding, DFT can usually provide better answers than Hartree-Fock formalism for large systems such as clusters and solids. For atoms and molecules, the results from DFT often rival those obtained by ab initio quantum chemistry, partly because larger basis sets can be used. Such encouraging results have in turn stimulated workers to further investigate the formal theory as well as the computational methodology of DFT. This volume contains ten contributions from active workers in DFT, covering topics from basic principles to methodology to applications. In the Foreword, Prof Walter Kohn gives his perspective on the recent advances in DFT. Because DFT is being developed in so many different directions, no single volume can provide a complete review of DFT. However, this volume will help both beginners and experimentalists to read the growing DFT literature more easily. Contents:Foreword (W Kohn)Exact Relations for the Electron Density and Energy Functionals (Á Nagy)Correlation in Molecules (S Suba & M A Whitehead)Reinterpretation of Electron Correlations within Density Functional Theory: Hartree, Local Density and Gradient Expansion Approximations via the Work Formalism of Electronic Structure (V Sahni)Beyond the Kohn–Sham Determinant (A Savin)Time-Dependent Density Functional Response Theory for Molecules (M E Casida)Evaluation and Application of Corrected Effective Medium Methods (A E DePristo)Infrared Spectra of Binding Energies of Transition Metal–Monoligand Complexes (R Fournier & I Pápai)Structure, Magnetic Properties and Reactivities of Open-Shell Species from Density Functional and Self-Consistent Hybrid Methods (V Barone)Gaussian Density Functional Method: An Alternative Tool for the Prediction of Physico-Chemical Properties (N Russo et al.)The Electron Density as Calculated from Density Functional Theory (R J Boyd et al.) Readership: Researchers and graduate students in computational chemistry and computational physics. keywords:Density-Functional;DFT;Quantum Chemistry;Computational Chemistry;Kohn-Sham;Electron Density;Continuum Dielectric;Self-Interaction;Exchange-Correlation;Time-Dependent Response “… very useful when quantum chemists use the density functional method.” Suehiro Iwata Okazaki National Research Institute, Japan “Overall, the quality of the chapters is very high … it will help both beginners and experimentalists (as well as DFT experts) to read the growing DFT literature more easily.” Theoretical Chemistry Accounts “… this volume will help both beginners and experimentalists to read the growing DFT literature more easily.” Mathematics Abstracts