Interactions between symmetric polyatomic molecules

Abstract

The interaction of symmetric polyatomic molecules is expanded as a series in Legendre polynomials. It is shown that, owing to the geometric symmetry of the molecules, the relative importance of the non-central forces decreases when one considers successively homonuclear diatomic molecules, tetrahedra and octahedra. These forces make only a small contribution to the total interactions between globular molecules; on the other hand, the central-type interactions are rather strongly modified with respect to a “6–12” potential. Several properties of globular substances are discussed in terms of this modified potential.