A periodic Numerov approach applied to the torsional tunneling splitting in hydrogen peroxide, aliphatic alcohols and phenol

Abstract

Abstract The adapted Numerov approach was extended to periodic problems and applied to the torsional tunneling splitting of six increasingly complex target systems carrying a hydroxy-group. The deviations from experiment remained on the order of 1 cm−1, except for phenol in which the exceptionally small ground-state tunneling-splitting of 0.0017 cm−1 was found in very good agreement with the experimental value of 0.0019 cm−1. Overall, the accuracy of the periodic Numerov approach for the treatment of torsional tunneling is on the same order as alternative approaches, but at a substantially reduced computational demand due to the restriction of the problem to the respective degree of freedom.