Orientational decoherence within molecules and emergence of the molecular shape

Abstract

The question of classicality is addressed in relation with the shape of the nuclear skeleton of molecular systems. As the most natural environment, the electrons of the molecule are considered as continuously monitoring agents for the nuclei. For this picture, an elementary formalism of decoherence theory is developed and numerical results are presented for few-particle systems. The numerical examples suggest that the electron-nucleus Coulomb interaction is sufficient for inducing a blurred shape with strong quantum coherences in compounds of the lightest elements, H${}_2$, D${}_2$, T${}_2$, and HeH${}^{+}$.

References in corpus (6)

• Polynomial-time quantum algorithm for the simulation of chemical dynamics
• Hund's paradox and the collisional stabilization of chiral molecules
• Pre-Born-Oppenheimer Molecular Structure Theory
• Monitoring approach to open quantum dynamics using scattering theory
• Decoherence of rotational degrees of freedom
• Pointer basis induced by collisional decoherence

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Variational Dirac-Coulomb explicitly correlated computations for atoms and molecules
• On the Breit interaction in an explicitly correlated variational Dirac-Coulomb framework
• Vibronic mass computation for the $EF$-$GK$-$H\bar{H}$ ${}^1{\Sigma }_{\text{g}}^{+}$ manifold of molecular hydrogen
• Relativistic two-electron atomic and molecular energies using $LS$ coupling and double groups: role of the triplet contributions to singlet states
• Laser-induced dynamic alignment of the HD molecule without the Born-Oppenheimer approximation
• Characterization of the continuous transition from atomic to molecular shape in the three-body Coulomb system