# Tag Info

15

In the Born-Oppenheimer approximation nuclei are assumed to behave as classical point-like particles. However, in reality the wave-particle duality also applies to them, and so the Schrödinger equation should also be solved for the nuclei $I$ in the potentials $V^I({\bf R})$ generated by the electrons. The harmonic approximation implies not using the full ...

14

If I want to break a Li$_2$ molecule (i.e. remove atom A from atom B), one way to do it is by shining a laser on it such that the frequency ($\nu$) or energy ($h\nu$) corresponds to the difference between the energy at $v=0$ (if the molecule starts in the ground state) and the dissociation asymptote in this picture (generated based on [1,2]): I think the ...

8

A more approximate but sometimes easier approach than the one of Nike Dattani might be to calculate an artificial reaction coordinate of separating the two systems. This can be done manually or by employing some accelerated MD technique, e.g. metadynamics. The latter would even allow you to map the free energy along this path and thereby give you an estimate ...

7

Whatever scattering mechanism you choose must respect detailed balance in equilibrium: on average, the number of particles hitting a patch of the wall at a given angle and velocity must equal the number of particles reflected at the same angle and velocity. If this were not the case, the system would not be in equilibrium. There are numerous ways to do this ...

5

Since no one has responded with expertise, I'll attempt a speculative answer here. To my mind, the simplest model of the atoms on the surface of the walls would be an ensemble of independent classical 3D harmonic oscillators at some temperatures $T_{\rm wall}$. That would be pretty easy to describe from a numerical standpoint, since their velocity could be ...

5

The starting point of most calculations is the Born-Oppenheimer approximation, which separates the electronic and nuclear degrees of freedom. The electronic structure problem is then solved using a variety of methods (DFT, wave function methods, etc), and the nuclear problem is typically solved using the (quasi)harmonic approximation in solids. To observe a ...

4

It is always better to write your own code to get elastic constants. For example , In case of cubic system, we need three types of distorsion to unit cell. Now elastic constant is simply slope of second order fit of energies at different value of distorsion (see different publications) normalized with Volume minima (volume corresponds to minimum energy) . ...

3

The Born-Oppenheimer (BO) approximation works well at high temperatures (far from 0 K), but the quantum nature of the nuclei (i.e. the zero-point energy) is an important consideration at low temperatures. A great example of this is the difference between the Einstein and Debye models of a solid. In the Einstein model, the nuclei are treated as identical ...

2

Not always the research pipeline is from experimental to theory. The group of Professor Artem Oganov had very interesting results where they started predicting theoretical structures (at extreme conditions) and then synthetize them in the lab. to confirm the predictions. One of their results is about $Na_3Cl$, $Na_2Cl$, $Na_3Cl_2$, $NaCl_3$, and $NaCl_7$. ...

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