No abstract

First-principles computations and experimental measurements of transition energies are carried out for vibrational overtone lines of the triatomic hydrogen ion H(3)(+) corresponding to floppy vibrations high above the barrier to linearity. Action spectroscopy is improved to detect extremely weak visible-light spectral lines on cold trapped H(3)(+) ions. A highly accurate potential surface is obtained from variational calculations using explicitly correlated Gaussian wave function expansions. After nonadiabatic corrections, the floppy H(3)(+) vibrational spectrum is reproduced at the 0.1 cm(-1) level up to 16600 cm(-1).

Calibration-quality ab initio adiabatic potential energy surfaces (PES) have been determined for all isotopologues of the molecular ion H(3)(+). The underlying Born-Oppenheimer electronic structure computations used optimized explicitly correlated shifted Gaussian functions. The surfaces include diagonal Born-Oppenheimer corrections computed from the accurate electronic wave functions. A fit to the 41,655 ab initio points is presented which gives a standard deviation better than 0.1 cm(-1) when restricted to the points up to 6000 cm(-1) above the first dissociation asymptote. Nuclear motion calculations utilizing this PES, called GLH3P, and an exact kinetic energy operator given in orthogonal internal coordinates are presented. The ro-vibrational transition frequencies for H(3)(+), H(2)D(+), and HD(2)(+) are compared with high resolution measurements. The most sophisticated and complete procedure employed to compute ro-vibrational energy levels, which makes explicit allowance for the inclusion of non-adiabatic effects, reproduces all the known ro-vibrational levels of the H(3)(+) isotopologues considered to better than 0.2 cm(-1). This represents a significant (order-of-magnitude) improvement compared to previous studies of transitions in the visible. Careful treatment of linear geometries is important for high frequency transitions and leads to new assignments for some of the previously observed lines. Prospects for further investigations of non-adiabatic effects in the H(3)(+) isotopologues are discussed. In short, the paper presents (a) an extremely accurate global potential energy surface of H(3)(+) resulting from high accuracy ab initio computations and global fit, (b) very accurate nuclear motion calculations of all available experimental line data up to 16,000 cm(-1), and (c) results suggest that we can predict accurately the lines of H(3)(+) towards dissociation and thus facilitate their experimental observation.

Transition intensities for small molecules such as water and CO can now be computed with such high accuracy that they are being used to systematically replace measurements in standard databases. These calculations use high-accuracy dipole moment surfaces and wave functions from spectroscopically determined potential energy surfaces (PESs). Here, an extra high-accuracy PES of the water molecule (HO) is produced starting from an PES which is then refined to empirical rovibrational energy levels. Variational nuclear motion calculations using this PES reproduce the fitted energy levels with a standard deviation of 0.011 cm, approximately three times their stated uncertainty. The use of wave functions computed with this refined PES is found to improve the predicted transition intensities for selected (problematic) transitions. A new room temperature line list for HO is presented. It is suggested that the associated set of line intensities is the most accurate available to date for this species.This article is part of the theme issue 'Modern theoretical chemistry'.

The molecular ion H + 3 is the simplest polyatomic and poly-electronic molecular system, and its spectrum constitutes an important benchmark for which precise answers can be obtained ab initio from the equations of quantum mechanics. Significant progress in the computation of the ro-vibrational spectrum of H + 3 is discussed. A new, global potential energy surface (PES) based on ab initio points computed with an average accuracy of 0.01 cm −1 relative to the non-relativistic limit has recently been constructed. An analytical representation of these points is provided, exhibiting a standard deviation of 0.097 cm −1 . Problems with earlier fits are discussed. The new PES is used for the computation of transition frequencies. Recently measured lines at visible wavelengths combined with previously determined infrared ro-vibrational data show that an accuracy of the order of 0.1 cm −1 is achieved by these computations. In order to achieve this degree of accuracy, relativistic, adiabatic and non-adiabatic effects must be properly accounted for. The accuracy of these calculations facilitates the reassignment of some measured lines, further reducing the standard deviation between experiment and theory.