Rearrangements and Tunneling Splittings in Small Water Clusters

Abstract

Recent far-infrared vibration-rotation tunneling (FIR-VRT) experiments pose new challenges to theory because the interpretation and prediction of such spectra requires a detailed understanding of the potential energy surface (PES) away from minima. In particular we need a global description of the PES in terms of a complete reaction graph. Hence all the transition states and associated mechanisms which might give rise to observable tunneling splittings must be characterized. It may be possible to guess the detailed permutations of atoms from the transition state alone, but experience suggests this is unwise. In this contribution a brief overview of the issues involved in treating the large amplitude motions of such systems will be given, with references to more detailed discussions and some specific examples. In particular we will consider the effective molecular symmetry group, the classification of rearrangement mechanisms, the location of minima and transition states and the calculation of reaction pathways. The application of these theories to small water clusters ranging from water dimer to water hexamer will then be considered. More details can be found in recent reviews.