An exact variational method to calculate rovibrational spectra of polyatomic molecules with large amplitude motion

Comparison of curvilinear coordinates within vibrational structure calculations based on automatically generated potential energy surfaces

For floppy molecules showing internal rotations and/or large amplitude motions, curvilinear internal coordinates are known to be superior to rectilinear normal coordinates within vibrational structure calculations. Due to the myriad definitions of internal coordinates, automated and efficient potential energy surface generators necessitate a high degree of flexibility, supporting the properties arising from these coordinates. Within this work, an approach to deal with these challenges is presented, including key elements, such as the selection of appropriate fit functions, the exploitation of symmetry, the positioning of grid points, or elongation limits for different coordinates. These elements are tested for five definitions of curvilinear coordinates, with three of them being generated in an automated manner. Calculations for semi-rigid molecules, namely H2O, H2CO, CH2F2, and H2CNH, demonstrate the general functionality of the implemented algorithms. Additional calculations for the HOPO molecule highlight the benefits of these curvilinear coordinates for systems with large amplitude motions. This new implementation allowed us to compare the performance of these different coordinate systems with respect to the convergence of the underlying expansion of the potential energy surface and subsequent vibrational configuration interaction calculations.

Spectroscopy and Scattering Studies Using Interpolated Ab Initio Potentials

The Born-Oppenheimer potential energy surface (PES) has come a long way since its introduction in the 1920s, both conceptually and in predictive power for practical applications. Nevertheless, nearly 100 years later-despite astonishing advances in computational power-the state-of-the-art first-principles prediction of observables related to spectroscopy and scattering dynamics is surprisingly limited. For example, the water dimer, (H₂O)₂, with only six nuclei and 20 electrons, still presents a formidable challenge for full-dimensional variational calculations of bound states and is considered out of reach for rigorous scattering calculations. The extremely poor scaling of the most rigorous quantum methods is fundamental; however, recent progress in development of approximate methodologies has opened the door to fairly routine high-quality predictions, unthinkable 20 years ago. In this review, in relation to the workflow of spectroscopy and/or scattering studies, we summarize progress and challenges in the component areas of electronic structure calculations, PES fitting, and quantum dynamical calculations.

A variational calculation of vibrational levels of vinyl radical

We report the vibrational energy levels of vinyl radical (VR) that are computed with a Lanczos eigensolver and a contracted basis. Many of the levels of the two previous VR variational calculations differ significantly and differ also from those reported in this paper. We identify the source of and correct symmetry errors on the potential energy surfaces used in the previous calculations. VR has two equivalent equilibrium structures. By plotting wavefunction cuts, we show that two tunneling paths play an important role. Using the computed wavefunctions, it is possible to assign many states and thereby to determine tunneling splittings that are compared with their experimental counterparts. Our computed red shift of the hot band at 2897.23 cm^-1, observed by Dong et al. [J Chem. Phys. 128, 044305 (2008)], is 4.47 cm^-1, which is close to the experimental value of 4.63 cm^-1.