Quantum entanglement and the dissociation process of diatomic molecules

Abstract

In this work, we investigate quantum entanglement-related aspects of the dissociation process of some selected, representative homo- and heteronuclear diatomic molecules. This study is based upon high-quality ab initio calculations of the (correlated) molecular wavefunctions involved in the dissociation processes. The values of the electronic entanglement characterizing the system in the limit cases corresponding to (i) the united-atom representation and (ii) the asymptotic region when atoms dissociate are discussed in detail. It is also shown that the behaviour of the electronic entanglement as a function of the reaction coordinate R exhibits remarkable correspondences with the phenomenological description of the physically meaningful regimes comprising the processes under study. In particular, the extrema of the total energies and the electronic entanglement are shown to be associated with the main physical changes experienced by the molecular spatial electronic density, such as charge depletion and accumulation or bond cleavage regions. These structural changes are characterized by several selected descriptors of the density, such as the Laplacian of the electronic molecular distributions (LAP), the molecular electrostatic potential (MEP) and the atomic electric potentials fitted to the MEP.