| Summary: | The first edition, published in 1979, was a central textbook that explained the use of the molecular symmetry group in understanding high resolution molecular spectra. In this expanded second edition, the molecular symmetry is introduced earlier on and the explanation of how to determine nuclear spin statistics has been consolidated into one chapter, after groups, symmetry groups, character tables, and the Hamiltonian have been introduced. A description of the symmetry in the three-dimensional rotation group K (spatial), irreducible spherical tensor operators, and vector coupling coefficients is now included. The chapters on energy levels and selection rules contain more recently discovered material concerning the Jahn-Teller effect, the Renner effect, multichannel quantum defect theory, the use of variational methods for calculating rotation-vibration energy levels, and the contact transformed rotation-vibration Hamiltonian. A new chapter is devoted to weakly bound cluster molecules (often called Van der Waals molecules). A selection of experimental spectra is included in order to illustrate particular theoretical points.
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