From whobey ^%at%^ WPI.EDU Wed Mar 16 11:47:17 1994 Received: from bigboote.WPI.EDU for whobey&$at$&WPI.EDU by www.ccl.net (8.6.4/930601.1506) id LAA02029; Wed, 16 Mar 1994 11:37:12 -0500 Received: from wpi.WPI.EDU (whobey*- at -*wpi.WPI.EDU [130.215.24.1]) by bigboote.WPI.EDU (8.6.7/8.6) with ESMTP id LAA23199 for ; Wed, 16 Mar 1994 11:37:08 -0500 From: William D Hobey Received: (whobey -8 at 8- localhost) by wpi.WPI.EDU (8.6.7/8.6) id LAA12731; Wed, 16 Mar 1994 11:37:07 -0500 Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 11:37:07 -0500 Message-Id: <199403161637.LAA12731 ":at:" wpi.WPI.EDU> To: CHEMISTRY(+ at +)ccl.net Subject: Pseudo-Jahn-Teller Effect In reply to Anton Van Oosten's question, I interpret the Jahn-Teller Effect as the coupling of two degenerate electronic states through a vibrational mode of motion, while the Pseudo-Jahn-Teller Effect is the coupling of two nearly degenerate electronic states through a vibration. Mathematically, the only difference is that the diagonal matrix elements (in, say, a perturbation treatment) are equal in one case, and differ to a "small" extent (of the order of vibrational energies) in the other. Physically, there appears to be no significant difference between the two cases. For basic theory see W.D.Hobey and A.D.McLachlan, "Dynamical Jahn-Teller Effect in Hydrocarbon Radicals", J. Chem. Phys. 33, 1695 (1960). For a simple minded application, see W.D.Hobey, "Vibronic Interactions of Nearly Degenerate States in Substituted Benzene Anions", J. Chem. Phys. 43, 2187 (1965). Bill Hobey