English

Identical particles exchange symmetry and the electric dipole moment in molecules

Quantum Physics 2022-11-22 v3 Chemical Physics

Abstract

Based on fundamental symmetries, molecules cannot have a permanent electric dipole moment although it is commonly used in the literature to explain the different molecular spectra for heteronuclear and homonuclear molecules. Electric-dipole rotational and vibrational spectra can indeed be observed in heteronuclear molecules while they are missing in molecules with identical nuclei. I show that the missing spectral features can be explained as an effect of the exchange symmetry for identical particles.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2112.05342,
  title  = {Identical particles exchange symmetry and the electric dipole moment in molecules},
  author = {Guglielmo M. Tino},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2112.05342},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

Revised argument, results unchanged. Corrected typos. Added references