N. Sukumar, DENSITY-FUNCTIONAL THEORY OF BORN COUPLINGS - CONSEQUENCES FOR ELECTRON FLOW IN JAHN-TELLER MOLECULES AND SUPERCONDUCTORS, International journal of quantum chemistry, 56(5), 1995, pp. 423-432
The dynamics of Jahn-Teller systems has recently been discussed in ter
ms of generalized electronic charge and current densities in nuclear-c
oordinate space. The introduction of the electronic phase as a functio
n of both electronic and nuclear coordinates, in addition to the elect
ronic density, was a crucial component of this formulation Here, a den
sity-based treatment of Born couplings is derived from first-principle
s quantum mechanics beyond the Born-Oppenheimer approximation. Because
of the degenerate electronic configuration of a Jahn-Teller molecule,
there are an infinite number of ways in which the charge distribution
can be oriented for the same energy, leading to a vanishing bond hard
ness for the molecule in the symmetric nuclear configuration. Further,
the moving nuclear framework serves as the perturbation necessary to
define the orientation of the charge density, leading to unhindered ro
tation of the charge cloud. This leads to the dynamical Jahn-Teller pr
oblem, namely, the coupling of electronic and nuclear motions through
the Born coupling terms. Applications to superconductivity theory are
discussed. (C) 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.