The rotational dynamics of rigid bodies implemented with the Cayley Klein parametrization.
- Resource Type
- Article
- Authors
- Cottingham, W. N.; Doyle, D. D.
- Source
- Molecular Physics. 11/20/2001, Vol. 99 Issue 22, p1839-1843. 5p.
- Subject
- *ROTATIONAL motion (Rigid dynamics)
*GEOMETRIC quantization
*WAVE functions
- Language
- ISSN
- 0026-8976
Rigid body rotations are described using the Cayley Klein parametrization. On quantization, the wave functions are simply polynomials in the parameters. Also, half-integral as well as integral angular momenta are allowed. The Cayley Klein parametrization provides a simple representation of both the space fixed and body fixed angular momentum operators. The construction of the allowed energies and the associated wavefunctions basically involves only algebra; no reference needs be made to the Schrödinger partial differential equations of the Euler angle parametrization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]