Nuclear Charge Radii of Silicon Isotopes.

The nuclear charge radius of ^{32}Si was determined using collinear laser spectroscopy. The experimental result was confronted with ab initio nuclear lattice effective field theory, valence-space in-medium similarity renormalization group, and mean field calculations, highlighting important achievements and challenges of modern many-body methods. The charge radius of ^{32}Si completes the radii of the mirror pair ^{32}Ar-^{32}Si, whose difference was correlated to the slope L of the symmetry energy in the nuclear equation of state. Our result suggests L≤60 MeV, which agrees with complementary observables.

Ab initio study of electronic states and radiative properties of the AcF molecule.

Relativistic coupled-cluster calculations of the ionization potential, dissociation energy, and excited electronic states under 35 000 cm-1 are presented for the actinium monofluoride (AcF) molecule. The ionization potential is calculated to be IPe = 48 866 cm-1, and the ground state is confirmed to be a closed-shell singlet and thus strongly sensitive to the T,P-violating nuclear Schiff moment of the Ac nucleus. Radiative properties and transition dipole moments from the ground state are identified for several excited states, achieving a mean uncertainty estimate of ∼450 cm-1 for the excitation energies. For higher-lying states that are not directly accessible from the ground state, possible two-step excitation pathways are proposed. The calculated branching ratios and Franck-Condon factors are used to investigate the suitability of AcF for direct laser cooling. The lifetime of the metastable (1)3Δ1 state, which can be used in experimental searches of the electric dipole moment of the electron, is estimated to be of order 1 ms.

Accurate ab initio calculations of RaF electronic structure appeal to more laser-spectroscopical measurements.

Recently, a breakthrough has been achieved in laser-spectroscopic studies of short-lived radioactive compounds with the first measurements of the radium monofluoride molecule (RaF) UV/vis spectra. We report results from high-accuracy ab initio calculations of the RaF electronic structure for ground and low-lying excited electronic states. Two different methods agree excellently with experimental excitation energies from the electronic ground state to the 2Π1/2 and 2Π3/2 states, but lead consistently and unambiguously to deviations from experimental-based adiabatic transition energy estimates for the 2Σ1/2 excited electronic state, and show that more measurements are needed to clarify spectroscopic assignment of the 2Δ state.

Plutonium and transplutonium element trioxides: molecular structures, chemical bonding, and isomers.

Ground-state equilibrium geometries, energetics, and vibrational frequencies of AnO3 molecules, An = Pu through Cf, and their isomers are calculated using an accurate small-core pseudopotential model and the two-component relativistic density functional theory. The qualitative features of chemical bonding in these molecules are discussed in terms of oxidation states and bond orders. The actinide oxidation state (VI) is reached only in the plutonium trioxide molecule, whereas heavier actinide atoms in T-shaped trioxide molecules should be considered as pentavalent. At least at low temperatures, PuO3 and, to a lesser degree, AmO3 and BkO3 molecules should be stable both with respect to the isomerization into oxoperoxides or oxosuperoxides and the decay into dioxides and molecular oxygen. These trioxides can form dimers with significant (above 250 kJ mol(-1)) dissociation energies; the oxidation states of actinide atoms in the lowest-energy configurations of these dimers coincide with those in the corresponding monomers. The ability to reach high oxidation states in oxygen compounds gradually decreases from Pu onwards, with the only exception being the unexpectedly stable Bk(v)O3.

First principles based modeling of the adsorption of atoms of element 120 on a gold surface.

Interactions of single atoms of element 120 (E120) and its lighter homologs (Ba and Ra) with the stable gold (111) surface simulated by clusters are studied using relativistic density functional theory and accurate two-component shape-consistent small-core pseudopotentials. The predicted E120 adsorption energy on gold (ca. 250 kJ mol(-1)) is significantly larger than the previously reported value. The trends in interactions of heavy group 2 elements with gold are discussed on the basis of electronic structure calculations and estimates by the semiempirical macroscopic Eichler-Miedema model.

Structures and stability of AnO4 isomers, An = Pu, Am, and Cm: a relativistic density functional study.

Equilibrium structures and energetics of various isomers of molecules with stoichiometry An·4O (An = Pu, Am, and Cm) are studied through electronic structure calculations at the relativistic density functional theory level in the frame of an accurate small-core pseudopotential model. In all cases, the global minima of the An·4O potential energy surfaces correspond to dioxo-superoxido-like species, [AnO2](O2). The stability of the "true" oxides AnO4 decreases from Pu to Cm, whereas the isomers with two O2 groups become relatively more stable. Correlation between the formal oxidation states and the Bader net charges of actinide atoms is discussed. Structural parameters, vibrational frequencies and charge and spin magnetization density distributions are analyzed in order to characterize the different isomers in chemical terms. Decrease of the An oxidation states along the An series is evident.

Relativistic density functional theory modeling of plutonium and americium higher oxide molecules.

The results of electronic structure modeling of plutonium and americium higher oxide molecules (actinide oxidation states VI through VIII) by two-component relativistic density functional theory are presented. Ground-state equilibrium molecular structures, main features of charge distributions, and energetics of AnO3, AnO4, An2On (An=Pu, Am), and PuAmOn, n = 6-8, are determined. In all cases, molecular geometries of americium and mixed plutonium-americium oxides are similar to those of the corresponding plutonium compounds, though chemical bonding in americium oxides is markedly weaker. Relatively high stability of the mixed heptoxide PuAmO7 is noticed; the Pu(VIII) and especially Am(VIII) oxides are expected to be unstable.

Zwitterions Functionalized by Optical Cycling Centers: Toward Laser-Coolable Polyatomic Molecular Cations.

Functionalization of large aromatic compounds and biomolecules with optical cycling centers (OCC) is of considerable interest for the design and engineering of molecules with a highly selective optical photoresponse. Both internal and external dynamics in such molecules can be precisely controlled by lasers, enabling their efficient cooling and opening up broad prospects for high-precision spectroscopy, ultracold chemistry, enantiomer separation, and various other fields. The way the OCC is bonded to a molecular ligand is crucial to the optical properties of the OCC, first of all, for the degree of closure of the optical cycling loop. Here we introduce a novel type of functionalized molecular cation where a positively charged OCC is bonded to various organic zwitterions with a particularly high permanent dipole moment. We consider strontium(I) complexes with betaine and other zwitterionic ligands and show the possibility of creating efficient and highly closed population cycling for dipole-allowed optical transitions in such complexes.

Two-component relativistic density functional theory modeling of the adsorption of element 114(eka-lead) on gold.

A cluster modeling of the interaction of an eka-Pb atom with the stable Au(111) surface using accurate small-core relativistic pseudopotentials and two-component non-collinear DFT is reported. The results obtained with two different types of exchange-correlation functionals (generalized-gradient and hybrid) are generally consistent and give rise to E114/Au(111) adsorption energy estimates within the range 0.4-0.5 eV. Substantial differences between the E114-Au and Pb-Au interactions are further corroborated.

Communications: Adsorption of element 112 on the gold surface: many-body wave function versus density functional theory.

The applicability of the relativistic density functional theory (RDFT) with conventional generalized gradient and hybrid exchange-correlation functionals to the description of the interactions of element 112 (Cn) and its lighter homolog Hg with a gold surface is assessed. The comparison of Cn-Au (Hg-Au) bond properties for two simple models of adsorption complexes on Au(111) surface obtained by RDFT and accurate many-body calculations indicates a strong underestimation of binding energies by conventional RDFT schemes. This effect provides a possible explanation of the discrepancies between the RDFT-based theoretical and experimental data concerning the thermochromatographic registration of the alpha-decay chain element 114-->Cn.

Importance of spin-orbit effects on the isomerism profile of Au3: an ab initio study.

Two-component relativistic density functional theory combined with high-level ab initio correlation techniques was applied to the study of the electronic structure and isomerism of Au(3). All calculations were performed with accurate small-core shape-consistent relativistic pseudopotentials. Density functional theory was used to determine the equilibrium structures of the Au(3) isomers and isomerization path and to estimate the contributions of spin-orbit effects to the ground state electronic energy along the path. The reliability of these estimates was verified through independent many-body multipartitioning perturbation theory calculations. Spin-orbit corrections were used to refine the isomerization energy profile computed by spin-orbit-free coupled cluster methods.

Ab initio study of temporary anions of benzene and fluorobenzenes using the multipartitioning many-body perturbation theory.

We present an ab initio study of the lowest states of five temporary anions: C6H6(-), C6H5F(-), 1,4-C6H4F2(-), 1,2,3-C6H3F3(-), and 1,3,5-C6H3F3(-). Vertical positions and widths of anionic resonances have been calculated within the stabilization graph approach using the multipartitioning form of the many-body perturbation theory for state-selective effective Hamiltonians restricted to second order (MPPT-R). Good agreement with experimentally derived estimates justifies application of the MPPT-R method for theoretical investigation of haloaromatic temporary anion radicals.

Direct deperturbation analysis of the A 2Pi approximately B 2Sigma+ complex of 7,6LiAr isotopomers.

Direct deperturbation analysis of the highly accurate experimental rovibronic term values of the A (2)Pi approximately B (2)Sigma(+) complex of LiAr [R. Bruhl and D. Zimmermann, J. Chem. Phys. 114, 3035 (2001)] has been performed in the framework of inverted close-coupling approach implicitly adjusted to the unified treatment of the overall A approximately B coupling effect without reducing the rovibrational dimensionality. The nonlinear fitting procedure was supported by the ab initio calculations on the spin-orbit and angular coupling matrix elements between the lowest X (2)Sigma(+), A (2)Pi, and B (2)Sigma(+) states. The analytical grid mapping based on the reduced variable representation of the radial coordinate r was used to improve the efficiency of the solution of the close-coupling radial equations near the dissociation limit. The mutual A approximately X perturbation effect on the A (2)Pi term values and spin-rotation splitting of the ground state were evaluated for both (7,6)LiAr isotopomers. The resulting empirical potential-energy curves for the adiabatic A (2)Pi and B (2)Sigma(+) states, along with the refined r-dependent nonadiabatic matrix elements, reproduce the total rovibronic structure of the (7)LiAr complex with the standard deviation of 0.003 cm(-1). The mass invariance of the deperturbed electronic parameters was confirmed by the calculation of the rovibronic term values of the (6)LiAr isotopomer which coincided with their experimental counterparts within 0.004 cm(-1).