Atomic momentum distributions in polyatomic molecules in rotational-vibrational eigenstates

2024/06/07 by Sota Sakaguchi, Sakaguchi, Sota, Yasuhiro Ohshima +3
Chemistry · Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Molecular Physics #Chemical Physics (physics.chem-ph) #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #FOS: Physical sciences #Molecular Spectroscopy and Structure

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2406.04832

openalex publication_date 2024/06/07 · openalex created_date 2024/06/11 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We report a quantum mechanical method for calculating the momentum distributions of constituent atoms of polyatomic molecules in rotational-vibrational eigenstates. Application of the present theory to triatomic molecules in the rovibrational ground state revealed that oscillatory changes appear on the proton momentum distribution in the nonlinear H₂O molecule, whilst no such modulation is present in the case of an oxygen atom in the linear CO₂ molecule. The atomic momentum distributions were analyzed in detail by means of a rigid rotor model, and it was found that the oscillation originates from quantum-mechanical delocalization of the target atom with respect to the other atoms.

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