Centrifugal stabilization and destabilization of molecular geometry and clustering of rovibrational energy levels in the H₂O

Abstract

The results of an investigation of ro-vibrational dynamics of the H₂O molecule in highly rotationally excited states are presented. Calculations for J = 20–40 were performed for the bending-rotation hamiltonian of H₂O by applying self-consistent methodology. The behaviour of the H₂O molecule has been discussed with the help of recently proposed theoretical tools. As a result, several distinct dynamical regions were marked out. In some of these regions, which depend on the strength of the ro-vibrational coupling and correlation, the molecular geometry is stabilized and in others destabilized. Reorganization of the energy spectrum and a new kind of energy level clustering is predicted.