ANGULAR MOMENTUM LADDER OPERATOR FORMALISM FOR LINEAR MOLECULES
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Date
1973
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Ohio State University
Abstract
Because molecule-fixed components of the total angular momentum operator for linear molecules do not obey angular momentum commutation relations (either with or without the anomalous sign of i). the traditional angular momentum ladder operator formalism of Condon and Shortley cannot be applied. It is known that this difficulty can be overcome by introducing into the linear molecule problem an extra rotational angle, which has essentially no physical significance, but which does lead to a formalism isomorphic with the normal formalism for nonlinear molecules. It will be shown that the linear molecule angular-momentum problem is susceptible to treatment, without introduction of extraneous variable, by a relatively straightforward extension of the Condon and Shortley formalism, in which angular momentum operators are taken to be functions of an integral or half-integral parameter representing the projection of the total angular momentum along the linear axis.
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Author Institution: National Bureau of Standards