CCSD(T) investigation of the interaction in neon dimer

Improved parameterization of interatomic potentials for rare gas dimers with density-based energy decomposition analysis

We examine interatomic interactions for rare gas dimers using the density-based energy decomposition analysis (DEDA) in conjunction with computational results from CCSD(T) at the complete basis set (CBS) limit. The unique DEDA capability of separating frozen density interactions from density relaxation contributions is employed to yield clean interaction components, and the results are found to be consistent with the typical physical picture that density relaxations play a very minimal role in rare gas interactions. Equipped with each interaction component as reference, we develop a new three-term molecular mechanical force field to describe rare gas dimers: a smeared charge multipole model for electrostatics with charge penetration effects, a B3LYP-D3 dispersion term for asymptotically correct long-range attractions that is screened at short-range, and a Born-Mayer exponential function for the repulsion. The resulted force field not only reproduces rare gas interaction energies calculated at the CCSD(T)/CBS level, but also yields each interaction component (electrostatic or van der Waals) which agrees very well with its corresponding reference value.

Rovibrational Structures in Floppy Triatomics: Distributed Gaussian Functions Treatment for the Ne2H- System

The full sequence of the bound states for a very floppy triatomic complex, Ne2H- in its ground electronic state, are initially computed for the rotationless situation and employing a variational approach that expands the total nuclear wave function over a large set of symmetry-adapted, distributed Gaussian functions and employs accurate atom-atom potential energy data. The results are tested for numerical convergence, compared with the behavior of both its diatomic fragments, Ne2 and NeH-, and further compared with the results for the Ne3 case. The computational analysis is extended to the production of the rotational constants for the very nonclassical ground state vibrational configuration by making use of the previous findings. The method is shown to provide us with several illuminating details on the nanoscopic internal dynamics of this very weakly bound quantum aggregate.

A potential from quantum chemistry for thermodynamic property predictions for methanethiol

An ab initio potential for methanethiol is determined by computing quantum-chemical interaction energies for a range of orientations and center-of-mass separation distances. These energies are initially fitted to a pairwise-additive, site-site Morse-C6 intermolecular potential. Additional interaction energies were then calculated at separation distances determined to be important from the angle-averaged Mayer f function calculated with the initial potential. This expanded set of interaction energies is then fitted using Boltzmann-type weighting to obtain the final intermolecular potential. Although there are some discrepancies in the fit for a particular type of orientation, the phase behavior calculated from Gibbs ensemble Monte Carlo simulations using this final potential is in very good agreement with experimental data. The prescription used here for obtaining the optimum potential from quantum-chemical methods should be applicable to other systems.

A complete configurational study for the bound states of Ne trimers

The structural properties and the energetics of the ground and the excited bound states of Ne(3) for zero total angular momentum are examined using different modelings for the two-body interactions. We employ a method consisting of a variational approach with a distributed Gaussian functions (DGF) basis set expansion. We discuss at length the advantages and possible limitations of such an approach, comparing it to other methods which have been applied in the literature to the same system. The DGF method turns out to be very accurate in giving us the bound states energetics and also provides in a natural way a convincing pictorial description of all the states, including those with dominant linear configurations. Additional bound states are found for the Ne(3) system with respect to those indicated in previous works and we suggest a "stabilization" procedure that can be used to assess the truly bound nature of a state. Some considerations on the relative reliability of the examined two-body interactions are also reported.