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Physical Chemistry

Schrödinger solved?

March 6, 2006 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 84, Issue 10

I was extremely pleased to see that "Exact solutions of the Schrödinger equation for molecules in the bound state have been accessible for decades" in the article titled "A Modeling Coup" (C&EN, Dec. 19, 2005, page 9).

I was not aware that an exact solution of the Schrödinger equation of even the hydrogen molecule had been achieved, due to the three-body problem. I always thought that that solution was an approximate one, albeit a reliably accurate one. If I am correct, then the solutions of the Schrödinger equations of more complex molecules are even more approximate and less accurate. What, then, does this mean for the study reported?

Vernon G. S. Box
New York City

You will probably receive avogadro's number of comments pointing this out, but I am sufficiently dismayed that I will add my voice to the cacophony. Unless the authors have solved the three-body problem (which would arouse some interest among the mathematics community), they have not achieved an "exact model" for the breakup of the hydrogen molecule. They have achieved a better approximation, confirmed by the "numeric solution" mentioned.

The article compounds the error by stating, "Exact solutions of the Schrödinger equation for molecules in the bound state have been available for decades." In point of fact, the only exact solutions available are for two-body systems.

Frederick C. Sauls
Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

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