Factorisation of molecular states and Born-Oppenheimer approximation

Thierry Jecko

(Département de Mathématiques, Université de Cergy-Pontoise)

Abstract

In recent papers, Chemists investigated, at a theoretical level, the question of factorisation of molecular (ground)states, a factor of which depends only on nuclear degrees of freedom. This factorisation was equipped with some physical interpretation of the factors, that is related to the Born-Oppenheimer approximation. B.T. Sutcliffe, R.G. Woolley and myself, we studied the question in the paper: Th. Jecko, B.T. Sutcliffe, R.G. Woolley: "On factorization of molecular wavefunctions." J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 48 (2015) 445201 (20pp).  A free preprint version of the paper is available at:  http://arxiv.org/abs/1506.00103 . 
In the talk, I shall review the problem, give some partial results and discuss some open questions.