Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2008
An attempt is made to calculate the first few angular terms in an expansion of the electron density for the phosphine molecule in Legendre polynomials. Such an expansion is appropriate for a model in which the three hydrogen nuclei are smeared to form a circular line charge. The Thomas–Fermi approximation has been used in conjunction with the variational method. The variational density employed includes p and f angular terms. An approximate charge density map is constructed for a plane containing the molecular axis in order to demonstrate the effect of the angular terms.