STABILITY AND TELLERS THEOREM - FULLERENES IN THE MARCH MODEL

We study C-60 With the use of the March model [IN. H. March, Proc. Cam b. Philos. Sec. 48, 655 (1952)]. A spherical shell model is;invoked to treat the nuclear potential, where the nuclear and core charges are s meared out into a shell of constant surface charge density. The valenc e electron distribution and the electrostatic potential are efficientl y computed by integration of the Thomas-Fermi equation, subject to the shell boundary conditions. Total energy is numerically calculated ove r a range of shell radii, and the mechanical stability of the model is explored with attention to the constraints of Teller's theorem [E. Te ller, Rev. Mod. Phys. 34, 627 (1962)]. The calculated equilibrium radi us of the shell is in fair agreement with experiment.