The representation theory for buckminsterfullerene (Q1333219)

The vibration normal modes of the molecule \(C_{60}\) are analyzed by group theoretical methods following Wigner's ideas of expressing the configuration space \(\mathbb{R}^{180}\) of the atomic displacements from equilibrium position as a direct sum of irreducible \(\mathbb{Q} G\)-modules. In the present case \(G \simeq A_5 \times C_2\) is the point group of the fullerene. The 60 atoms of \(C_{60}\) lie at the vertices of a truncated icosahedron having as faces 12 pentagons and 20 hexagons. Unit vectors are chosen at each vertex in the direction of the corresponding three edges, as a symmetry-adapted basis spanning the mechanical representation of the equation of motion \(\ddot x = M x\) of the molecular vibrations. This allows one to distinguish between pentagonal basis vectors (having one adjacent pentagon) and hexagonal ones (having two adjacent hexagons). The \(180 \times 180\) real matrix \(M\) is defined in terms of force constants, here limited to the interaction of atoms separated from each other by at most two edges. These force constants ensure that \(M\) has 180 linearly independent eigenvectors with negative eigenvalues, which define the normal modes. The endomorphism \(\mu : x \to Mx\) of \(\mathbb{R}^{180}\) can be expressed in terms of a number of specially chosen endomorphisms of \(\mathbb{Q}^{180}\) characterized by some simple actions on the hexagonal and pentagonal basis vectors, respectively. The \(\mathbb{Q} G\)-module \(\mathbb{Q}^{180}\) appears to be a direct sum of subspaces obtained from the subspace \(X\) spanned by the hexagonal vectors and \(X\) is then decomposed into irreducible \(\mathbb{Q} G\)-modules. A \(G\)-invariant inner product is defined on \(X\) and subspaces are defined spanned by the \(\mathbb{Q} G\)-modules with a same character. These characters are indexed by the partitions (5), (41), (32) and (311) of 5 for \(A_5\) and taking the behavior under \(C_2\) also into account. For each of these spaces, sets of vectors are derived which are invariant with respect to the special endomorphisms mentioned above. One then gets the desired matrix representation of \(\mu\) (which is in the \(\mathbb{R}\)-algebra of the endomorphisms considered) allowing by diagonalization to obtain the vectors of the normal modes of vibration.