[en] The hybrid meta density functionals M05-2X and M06-2X have been shown to provide broad accuracy for main group chemistry. In the present article we make the functional form more flexible and improve the self-interaction term in the correlation functional to improve its self-consistent-field convergence. We also explore the constraint of enforcing the exact forms of the exchange and correlation functionals through second order (SO) in the reduced density gradient. This yields two new functionals called M08-HX and M08-SO, with different exact constraints. The new functionals are optimized against 267 diverse main-group energetic data consisting of atomization energies, ionization potentials, electron affinities, proton affinities, dissociation energies, isomerization energies, barrier heights, noncovalent complexation energies, and atomic energies. Then the M08-HX, M08-SO, M05-2X, and M06-2X functionals and the popular B3LYP functional are tested against 250 data that were not part of the original training data for any of the functionals, in particular 164 main-group energetic data in 7 databases, 39 bond lengths, 38 vibrational frequencies, and 9 multiplicity-changing electronic transition energies. These tests include a variety of new challenges for complex systems, including large-molecule atomization energies, organic isomerization energies, interaction energies in uracil trimers, and bond distances in crowded molecules (in particular, cyclophanes). The M08-HX functional performs slightly better than M08-SO and M06-2X on average, significantly better than M05-2X, and much better than B3LYP for a combination of main-group thermochemistry, kinetics, noncovalent interactions, and electronic spectroscopy. More important than the slight improvement in accuracy afforded by M08-HX is the conformation that the optimization procedure works well for data outside the training set. Problems for which the accuracy is especially improved by the new M08-HX functional include large-molecule atomization energies, noncovalent interaction energies, conformational energies in aromatic peptides, barrier heights, multiplicity-changing excitation energies, and bond lengths in crowded molecules.

No abstract available

No abstract available

[en] The muonic atom 4Heu has the composition a++u-e-, and is formed by stopping negative muons in He doped with a small amount of NH3 (or Xe). It may be regarded as a unique heavy H-atom isotope with a mass of 4.1 amu. As such, the study of its chemical reaction rates and comparison with those of the well-known light Mu atom (0.113amu) allows unprecedented tests of kinetic isotope effects over a range of 36 in mass. As a first example, and one which is of most fundamental interest, we have begun kinetics studies of the Heu + H2 - HeuH + H reaction in the gas phase. The first measurements, at 295K, give a rate constant of kHei = 4:1 - 0:7 x 10-16 cm3 molec-1 s-1. In comparison, variational transition state calculations give a value of 2:46 x 10-16 cm3 molec-1 s-1, some what below the measurement, despite the large error bar, raising the possibility that the calculations, on an essentially exact potential energy surface, have underestimated the amount of quantum tunneling involved, even for this heavy H-atom isotope

[en] A semiclassical trajectory method, called the self-consistent decay of mixing (SCDM) method, is presented for the treatment of electronically nonadiabatic dynamics. The SCDM method is a modification of the semiclassical Ehrenfest (SE) method (also called the semiclassical time-dependent self-consistent-field method) that solves the problem of unphysical mixed final states by including decay-of-mixing terms in the equations for the evolution of the electronic state populations. These terms generate a force, called the decoherent force (or dephasing force), that drives the electronic component of each trajectory toward a pure state. Results for several mixed quantum-classical methods, in particular the SCDM, SE, and natural-decay-of-mixing methods and several trajectory surface hopping methods, are compared to the results of accurate quantum mechanical calculations for 12 cases involving five different fully dimensional triatomic model systems. The SCDM method is found to be the most accurate of the methods tested. The method should be useful for the simulation of photochemical reactions

[en] An expression is obtained for the electronic decoherence time of the reduced density electronic matrix in mixed quantum-classical molecular-dynamics simulations. The result is obtained by assuming that decoherence is dominated by the time dependence of the overlap of minimum-uncertainty packets and then maximizing the rate with respect to the parameters of the wave packets. The expression for the decay time involves quantities readily available in non-Born-Oppenheimer molecular-dynamics simulations, and it is shown to have a reasonable form when compared with two other formulas for the decay time that have been previously proposed

[en] New experimental and theoretical rate constants for two isotopologs of the simplest chemical reaction, D+H2 HD +H, and H + D2 HD + D, are presented. The experiments are carried out using a shock tube and complement earlier investigations over a very large temperature range, 167 to 2112 K. The theoretical results are obtained using accurate quantum dynamics with a converged Born-Oppenheimer potential energy surface and non-Born-Oppenheimer corrections. Experiment and theory now agree perfectly, within experimental error, bringing to completion this seventy-five year old scientific problem

[en] The photodissociation dynamics of ammonia upon excitation of the out-of-plane bending mode (mode ν₂ with n₂=0,...,6 quanta of vibration) in the A-tilde electronic state is investigated by means of several mixed quantum/classical methods, and the calculated final-state properties are compared to experiments. Five mixed quantum/classical methods are tested: one mean-field approach (the coherent switching with decay of mixing method), two surface-hopping methods [the fewest switches with time uncertainty (FSTU) and FSTU with stochastic decay (FSTU/SD) methods], and two surface-hopping methods with zero-point energy (ZPE) maintenance [the FSTU/SD+trajectory projection onto ZPE orbit (TRAPZ) and FSTU/SD+minimal TRAPZ (mTRAPZ) methods]. We found a qualitative difference between final NH₂ internal energy distributions obtained for n₂=0 and n₂>1, as observed in experiments. Distributions obtained for n₂=1 present an intermediate behavior between distributions obtained for smaller and larger n₂ values. The dynamics is found to be highly electronically nonadiabatic with all these methods. NH₂ internal energy distributions may have a negative energy tail when the ZPE is not maintained throughout the dynamics. The original TRAPZ method was designed to maintain ZPE in classical trajectories, but we find that it leads to unphysically high internal vibrational energies. The mTRAPZ method, which is new in this work and provides a general method for maintaining ZPE in either single-surface or multisurface trajectories, does not lead to unphysical results and is much less time consuming. The effect of maintaining ZPE in mixed quantum/classical dynamics is discussed in terms of agreement with experimental findings. The dynamics for n₂=0 and n₂=6 are also analyzed to reveal details not available from experiment, in particular, the time required for quenching of electronic excitation and the adiabatic energy gap and geometry at the time of quenching

[en] Bromoacetyl chloride photodissociation has been interpreted as a paradigmatic example of a process in which nonadiabatic effects play a major role. In molecular beam experiments by Butler and co-workers [J. Chem. Phys. 95, 3848 (1991); J. Chem. Phys. 97, 355 (1992)], BrCH₂C(O)Cl was prepared in its ground electronic state (S₀) and excited with a laser at 248 nm to its first excited singlet state (S₁). The two main ensuing photoreactions are the ruptures of the C-Cl bond and of the C-Br bond. A nonadiabatic model was proposed in which the C-Br scission is strongly suppressed due to nonadiabatic recrossing at the barrier formed by the avoided crossing between the S₁ and S₂ states. Recent reduced-dimensional dynamical studies lend support to this model. However, another interpretation that has been given for the experimental results is that the reduced probability of C-Br scission is a consequence of incomplete intramolecular energy redistribution. To provide further insight into this problem, we have studied the energetically lowest six singlet electronic states of bromoacetyl chloride by using an ab initio multiconfigurational perturbative electronic structure method. Stationary points (minima and saddle points) and minimum energy paths have been characterized on the S₀ and S₁ potential energy surfaces. The fourfold way diabatization method has been applied to transform five adiabatic excited electronic states to a diabatic representation. The diabatic potential energy matrix of the first five excited singlet states has been constructed along several cuts of the potential energy hypersurfaces. The thermochemistry of the photodissociation reactions and a comparison with experimental translational energy distributions strongly suggest that nonadiabatic effects dominate the C-Br scission, but that the reaction proceeds along the energetically allowed diabatic pathway to excited-state products instead of being nonadiabatically suppressed. This conclusion is also supported by the low values of the diabatic couplings on the C-Br scission reaction path. The methodology established in the present study will be used for the construction of global potential energy surfaces suitable for multidimensional dynamics simulations to test these preliminary interpretations

[en] Electronically nonadiabatic photodissociation can be investigated in detail by experiments. This provides an opportunity to validate the current theory of electronically nonadiabatic processes, but is great challenge because the time scale of photodissociation processes can be long compared to the current capability for accurate direct dynamics simulations. To circumvent this difficulty, we have been using analytic diabatic potential energy matrices, such that the simulation time scale can be extended to the nanosecond region without neglecting the effects of external electron correlation. In previous work, we have developed full-dimensional three-state potential energy matrices for thioanisole photodissociation. In the current work, we extend this work in two main ways: (i) we improve the treatment of the initial torsional potential, and (ii) we shift the potential energy surfaces to investigate the quantitative effect on the dissociation lifetimes and product branching ratios of changing the energy and location of the S₁–S₂ conical intersection.