Vibrational angular momentum level densities of linear molecules

TL;DR

This paper develops a recurrence relation to calculate vibrational level densities, considering angular momentum, in linear molecules, and applies it to specific carbon clusters to explore their vibrational properties.

Contribution

It introduces a new recurrence relation for vibrational level densities that accounts for angular momentum in linear molecules, extending previous models.

Findings

Recurrence relation successfully applied to carbon clusters n=4,6,7.

Level densities vary with energy and angular momentum, revealing vibrational behavior.

Method provides a new tool for studying vibrational states in linear molecules.

Abstract

While linear molecules in their vibrational ground state cannot carry angular momentum around their symmetry axis, the presence of vibrational excitations can induce deformations away from linearity and therefore also allow angular momentum along the molecular axis. In this work, a recurrence relation is established for the calculation of the vibrational level densities (densities of states) of linear molecules, specified with respect to both energy and angular momentum. The relation is applied to the carbon clusters of sizes $n=4,6,7$ as a case study.