Comments by Professor Trevor Letcher on the Book:
Ideas of Quantum Chemistry
by Professor Lucjan Piela
The book is written by a well respected Quantum Chemist who obviously has a great love for his subject. His book reflects this and his enthusiasm for Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Chemistry. It is written in an informal manner which is reminiscent of some of the Physics books written by Richard Feymann. It is a text-book aimed at students (both undergraduates and graduates and research students) of theoretical chemistry, quantum mechanics and quantum chemistry and gives the impression of being a set of very exciting lectures given in an interactive mode. It can be read at a number of levels starting with the introductory level. This is for the student wanting a simple understanding of what is in the field but not wanting to give up on the wonderful stories and background to the exciting developments of the subject in the first thirty years of the twentieth century and to the very latest developments of teleportation, quantum tunneling, laser experimentation and NMR theory and future developments in the subject. The complete book is for the advanced student who needs the derivations, references to derivations, the complete set of historical papers and books, the latest papers in the field and projections for the future. These are given in each of the 15 chapters. The book is also studded with interesting stories linked to the great scientists of Quantum Chemistry – Einstein, Schrödinger, Heisenberg, Planck, Dirac and many others.
It is a book that is fresh and up to date with the very latest developments in the field and the latest references to these works. It contains a large number of illustrations and diagrams aimed at getting the message across in as much an interactive way as is possible in a text-book. The book is studded with examples and each chapter ends with a set of multi-choice problems. There is also a web- annex reference section and the plan is to update the web files every six months. The book has obviously been written by an experienced teacher wanting to increase his audience. I am sure he will succeed.
The chapter titles reflect the full picture of Quantum Chemistry and shows that no subject area has been left out. The chapters are:
- The Magic of Quantum Chemistry
- The Schrödinger Equation
- Beyond the Schrödinger Equation
- Exact Solutions – our Beacons
- Two Fundamental Approximate Methods
- Separation of Electronic and Nuclear Motions
- Motions of the Nuclei
- Electronic Motion in the Mean Field: Atoms and Molecules
- Electronic Motion in the Mean Field: Periodic Systems
- Correlation of the Electronic Motions
- Electronic Motions: Density Fluctuation Theory
- The Molecule in an Electric or Magnetic Field
- Intermolecular Interactions
- Intermolecular Motion of Electrons and Nuclei: Chemical Reactions
- Information Processing and the Mission of Chemistry
The book also includes an extensive Appendix of 26 sections which takes up almost 20% of the book. The Appendix reflects the division of the book and the detail the author and gone into. The Sections are: Determinants; Spaces, Vectors and Functions; Group Theory and Spectroscopy; Two State Models; Dirac Delta Function; Translation versus Momentum and Rotation versus Angular Momentum; Vectors and Scaler Potentials; The Wave Function for Hydrogen like atoms; Space and Body Fixed Coordinate Systems; Orthogonalization; Diagonalization of a Matrix; Secular Equations; Slater-Condon Rules; Lagrange Multipliers Method; Penalty Function Method; Molecular Integrals with Gaussian Type Orbitals 1s; Singlet and Triplet States for Two Electrons; The hydrogen Molecular Ion; Population Analysis; The Dipole Moment of a Lone Pair; Second Quantization; Vibrational Approach to the Hydrogen Atom in an Electric Field: NMR shielding and Coupling Constants – Derivation; Multipole Expansion; Pauli Deformation; Acceptor-Donor Structure contributions in the MO Configuration.
Professor Trevor Letcher (Emeritus Professor, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa)
