Jh. Frederick et C. Woywod, General formulation of the vibrational kinetic energy operator in internalbond-angle coordinates, J CHEM PHYS, 111(16), 1999, pp. 7255-7271
A general formulation of the vibrational kinetic energy operator expressed
in internal bond-angle coordinates is presented. This formulation is based
on Podolsky's expression for the covariant form of the Laplace-Beltrami ope
rator. When a valid set of internal bond-angle coordinates is employed, it
is possible to adapt a systematic approach to solve for the Jacobian determ
inant governing the coordinate transformation from Cartesian coordinates. I
n the general case of an arbitrary N-atom system, this Jacobian always fact
orizes to a simple form. This allows one to evaluate all the terms that con
tribute to (V) over cap', the effective potential that arises from transfor
ming the kinetic energy operator to internal coordinates. We discuss restri
ctions on the choice of internal vibrational coordinates that may be includ
ed in a valid set. We then provide tabular information from which the vibra
tional kinetic energy operator for any molecular system can be constructed
directly with no matrix inversion or chain rule manipulation required. (C)
1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-9606(99)01840-1].