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  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 2001  > March  >
Research: Science and Education
Investigating the Adiabatic Approximation in Quantum Mechanics through the Analysis of Two Coupled Harmonic Oscillators
Anne B. McCoy
Department of Chemistry, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210
Cover
March 2001
Vol. 78 No. 3
p. 401
Abstract
The nature of the adiabatic approximation is investigated. This approximation is at the center of the Born-Oppenheimer approximation, commonly employed in the construction of molecular potentials. First, general behaviors of the approximation and some implications of these results are discussed. We show that the ground-state energy, calculated using the adiabatic approximation, will be lower than the calculated energy when no approximations are made. Next, a numerical and analytical application of the adiabatic approximation to systems comprising two coupled harmonic oscillators is described. These systems are used to demonstrate the results derived in the first part of the paper and to investigate how the accuracy of the approximation depends on the frequencies of the oscillators and the coupling strength.
More Information
*  Citation
 McCoy, Anne B. J. Chem. Educ. 2001 78 401.
*  Keywords
 Bonding Theory; Physical Chemistry; Quantum Chemistry; Theoretical Chemistry
*  History
 Created:
Last Updated:		 February 6, 2001
August 31, 2005
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