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Thomas-Fermi fields for molecules with tetrahedral and octahedral symmetry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

N. H. March
Affiliation:
Department of PhysicsUniversity of Sheffield

Abstract

The Thomas-Fermi method has been applied to molecules with tetrahedral or octahedral symmetry in the approximation in which the nuclei of the outer atoms are smeared out over the surface of a sphere. Solutions are given for the molecules CH4, CF4, CCl4, SiH4, SiF4 and SF6, and using the results presented here it will not be a difficult matter to obtain the solutions for other molecules if they should be required.

A comparison of the results for CH4 with those of Buckingham, Massey and Tibbs shows that whilst for such a light molecule the charge distribution is somewhat poor, the potential is already in good agreement with the results of the Hartree self-consistent field method. For CCl4, however, the approximation of smoothing out all the protons appears to break down. An alternative approximation in which the K and L shell electrons are compressed into the nucleus and the modified nuclear charges smoothed, has been investigated and appears to give more reasonable results.

A discussion of the energy has been given, but the method is not sufficiently accurate to be of value for energetic considerations.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge Philosophical Society 1952

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References

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