About the concept of electron localization

SEBASTIAN FORTIN; OLIMPIA LOMBARDI

STRUCTURAL CHEMISTRY

SPRINGER/PLENUM PUBLISHERS

Lugar: New York; Año: 2025

1040-0400

Electron localization, as studied in quantumchemistry, is a phenomenon consisting in the confinement of electrons to aspecific region close to an atom or between atoms: electrons are localized in acertain region instead of moving freely throughout space. Although electronlocalization is manifested in different ways, here we will focus on two cases:molecules and crystalline solids.Theaim of the present article is not to delve into technical matters, but toconsider the phenomenon of electron localization from a conceptual point of view.With this purpose, the work is organized in two main parts: Section 2 devotedto molecules and Section 3 devoted to solids. Section 2 will take into accountthe leading role played by the electron density in the study of electronlocalization; the aim will be to point out the different interpretations of the concept of electron density,which lead to different ways of conceiving electron localization. In Section 3,the phenomenon of Anderson localization will be considered in order to showthat, besides the just mentioned divergences about how electron localization isunderstood, it involves an additional conceptual issue related to the appeal tolimiting procedures. Finally, the paper closes with some concluding remarks.