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  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 1999  > October  >
Research: Science and Education
The Hartree-Fock Self-Consistent Field: An Allegorical Connection Using Two Coupled Harmonic Oscillators
Michael Messina
Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Wilmington, NC 28403
Cover
October 1999
Vol. 76 No. 10
p. 1439
Abstract
In this work we present a simple analogy between the application of the HF self-consistent field method to atoms and molecules and to a set of two coupled harmonic oscillators with two different forms for the nonseparable interaction potential. Using this system we make analogies to all the important ideas of the HF self-consistent field method: orbital energies, correlation energy, wave function correlation, the Hartree-Fock limit, and Koopmans' theorem. We demonstrate that this exercise can be an effective pedagogical tool, since all integrals involved in the HF equations for these systems are known to the students from their study of the harmonic oscillator and students can solve the HF equations to self-consistency with a hand calculator or an Excel spreadsheet.
More Information
*  Citation
 Messina, Michael. J. Chem. Educ. 1999 76 1439.
*  Keywords
 Physical Chemistry; Theoretical Chemistry; Quantum Chemistry; Computational Chemistry
*  History
 Created:
Last Updated:		 September 6, 1999
June 23, 2005
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