scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1255548
Research exposition (monographs, survey articles) pertaining to classical thermodynamics (80-02) Chemical kinetics in thermodynamics and heat transfer (80A30) Molecular physics (81V55) Quantum dynamics and nonequilibrium statistical mechanics (general) (82C10) Classical flows, reactions, etc. in chemistry (92E20)
The book is written for experts in Quantum Theory of Chemical Reactions which is not based on quantum kinetic equations. The authors use the Born-Oppenheimer method of separation of electron and nuclear degrees of freedom and the self-consistent field method. With their help they develop the reaction path method, deriving the reaction path (oscillator type) Hamiltonian, based on properties of the potential energy surface of the fundamental electron-nuclear Hamiltonian [see \textit{D. M. Hirst}, Potential energy surfaces, Taylor \& Francis, London (1985)]. The most interesting chapters are the last ones devoted to quantum microscopic models of electron and proton transfer in solutions and photodissociation. Here approximate equations of motion are derived for different operator averages and a variational approach is applied for a calculation of effective Hamiltonians. Trial wave functions are products of wave functions depending on different degrees of freedom. An overwhelming majority of cited papers is published in the Journals of Physical Chemistry and Chemical Physics. In order to be able to benefit from this book the interested reader must have prior knowledge. A natural progression (from the authors' point of view) would be their first book ``Introduction to Molecular Dynamics and Chemical Kinetics (Wiley 1996) and the book by \textit{G. Schatz} and \textit{M. A. Ratner} ``Quantum Mechanics in Chemistry (Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ) (1993).
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