Axilrod–Teller potential explained

The Axilrod–Teller potential in molecular physics, is a three-body potential that results from a third-order perturbation correction to the attractive London dispersion interactions (instantaneous induced dipole-induced dipole)

V _{ijk} = E _{0} \left[ (1+3 \cos\gamma _{i} \cos\gamma _{j} \cos\gamma _{k})/(\left( r _{ij} r _{jk} r _{ik} \right) ^{3}) \right]

where

r _{ij} is the distance between atoms i and j , and \gamma _{i} is the angle between the vectorsr _{ij} and r _{ik} . The coefficient E _{0} is positive and of the order V\alpha ^{3} , where V is the ionization energy and \alpha is the mean atomic polarizability; the exact value of E _{0} depends on the magnitudes of the dipole matrix elements and on the energies of the p orbitals.

References

• Axilrod . B. M. . Teller . E. . 1943 . Interaction of the van der Waals Type Between Three Atoms . . 11 . 6 . 299 . 10.1063/1.1723844. 1943JChPh..11..299A .