Variational vibrational states of HCOOH

Abstract

Vibrational states of the formic acid molecule are converged using the GENIUSH-Smolyak approach and the potential energy surface taken from [D. Tew and W. Mizukami, J. Phys. Chem. A 120, 9815 (2016)]. The quantum nuclear motion is described by using the $cis$-$trans$ torsional coordinate and eight curvilinear normal coordinates defined with respect to an instantaneous reference configuration changing as a function of the torsional degree of freedom. Harmonic oscillator basis functions are used for the curvilinear normal coordinates, a Fourier basis for the torsional coordinate, and a simple basis pruning condition is combined with a Smolyak integration grid. $Trans$, $cis$, and $delocalized$ vibrational states are reported up to and slightly beyond the isomerization barrier.