The Axilrod–Teller potential in

molecular physics Molecular physics is the study of the physical properties of molecules and molecular dynamics. The field overlaps significantly with physical chemistry, chemical physics, and quantum chemistry. It is often considered as a sub-field of atomic, mo ...

, is a three-body

potential Potential generally refers to a currently unrealized ability. The term is used in a wide variety of fields, from physics to the social sciences to indicate things that are in a state where they are able to change in ways ranging from the simple re ...

that results from a third-order perturbation correction to the attractive London dispersion interactions (instantaneous induced dipole-induced dipole) :

V_= E_ \left \frac
\right

where

r_

is the distance between atoms

i

and

j

, and

\gamma_

is the angle between the vectors

\mathbf_

and

\mathbf_

. The coefficient

E_

is positive and of the order

V\alpha^

, where

V

is the ionization energy and

\alpha

is the mean atomic polarizability; the exact value of

E_

depends on the magnitudes of the dipole matrix elements and on the energies of the

p

orbitals.

References

* Chemical bonding Quantum mechanical potentials {{electromagnetism-stub