Before he developed the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer's early work revolutionized the field of quantum chemistry – and his theory is still used today
Retrieved on:
Vendredi, août 4, 2023
While Oppenheimer will always be recognized as the father of the atomic bomb, his early contributions to quantum mechanics form the bedrock of modern quantum chemistry.
Key Points:
- While Oppenheimer will always be recognized as the father of the atomic bomb, his early contributions to quantum mechanics form the bedrock of modern quantum chemistry.
- As a physical chemist, Oppenheimer’s work on molecular quantum mechanics plays a major role in both my teaching and my research.
The Born-Oppenheimer approximation
- This paper outlined what is commonly referred to as the Born-Oppenheimer approximation.
- The Born-Oppenheimer approximation offers a way to simplify the complex problem of describing molecules at the atomic level.
- This approximation may seem like a minor adjustment, but the Born-Oppenheimer approximation goes far beyond just simplifying quantum mechanics calculations on molecules.
- These models are a direct consequence of the Born-Oppenheimer approximation.
- The Born-Oppenheimer approximation also influenced how scientists think about chemical reactions.
Computational quantum chemistry
- This field, known as computational quantum chemistry, has grown exponentially with the widespread availability of faster, more powerful high-end computational resources.
- Currently, chemists use computational quantum chemistry for various applications ranging from discovering novel pharmaceuticals to designing better photovoltaics before ever trying to produce them in the lab.
- In the future, a new era of quantum computers could make computational quantum chemistry even more robust by performing faster computations on increasingly large molecular systems.