Introduction
This introductory chapter considers first the relation between molecular reaction dynamics and the major branches of physical chemistry. The concept of elementary chemical reactions at the quantized state-to-state level is discussed. The theoretical description of these reactions based on the time-dependent Schrödinger equation and the Born-Oppenheimer approximation is introduced and the resulting time-dependent Schrödinger equation describing the nuclear dynamics is discussed. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of matter at thermal equilibrium, focusing at the Boltzmann distribution. Thus, the Boltzmann distribution for vibrational, rotational, and translational degrees of freedom is discussed and illustrated.
Keywords: elementary reactions, state-to-state dynamics, Born-Oppenheimer approximation, time-dependent Schrödinger equation, Boltzmann distribution
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .