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THEORETICAL
ALCHEMY
Modeling Matter
by Walter Harrison (Stanford
University, USA)
212pp
978-981-4322-14-0(pbk): US$28 / £17
US$19.60 /
£11.90
978-981-4322-13-3: US$64 / £40
US$44.80 / £28
Table
of Contents (45k)
Chapter
1: Atomic States (167k)
Chapter
2: Hydrides (1,561k)
Chapter
3: Molecules (639k)
The best way to
understand chemical bonding may be to
take a view appropriate to each
individual system, a view which may be
quite different for various systems.
Sometimes two very different views are
appropriate for the same system, and
then the combination may even give the
parameters needed to estimate the
bonding energy by hand. Density
Functional Theory, on the other hand,
generally tries to take one view as
applicable to all systems, and proceeds
computationally.
In contrast to the
author's two previous well-known
textbooks, Electronic Structure and
the Properties of Solids (1989)
and Elementary Electronic Structure
(1999), in this book he tries to
distill the essence of the
representation of electronic structure
in a much briefer description. It is
shortened by focusing primarily on the
bonding energies, the energy gained in
assembling atoms as a molecule or a
solid, or as a solid with a surface. A
central point is that the same
description of the electronic structure
which gives this cohesion, can also be
used to understand all of the other
properties, though those other
properties are not emphasized here. The
effort is characterized by the title,
which combines the modern word "theory"
with the ancient effort of "alchemy" to
make sense of the material world.
Contents:
- Atomic States
- Hydrides
- Simple Molecules
- Simple Metals
- Covalent Solids
- Ionic Crystals
- Transition and f-Shell Metals
- Transition-Metal Compounds
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