Many-body theory calculations of positronic-bonded molecular dianions

Abstract

The energetic stability of positron–dianion systems [A−; e+; A−] is studied via many-body theory, where A− includes H−, F−, Cl−, and the molecular anions (CN)− and (NCO)−. Specifically, the energy of the system as a function of ionic separation is determined by solving the Dyson equation for the positron in the field of the two anions using a positron–anion self-energy as constructed in Hofierka et al. [Nature 606, 688 (2022)] that accounts for correlations, including polarization, screening, and virtual-positronium formation. Calculations are performed for a positron interacting with H22−, F22−, and Cl22− and are found to be in good agreement with previous theory. In particular, we confirm the presence of two minima in the potential energy of the [H−; e+; H−] system with respect to ionic separation: a positronically bonded [H−; e+; H−] local minimum at ionic separations r ∼ 3.4 Å and a global minimum at smaller ionic separations r ≲ 1.6 Å that gives overall instability of the system with respect to dissociation into a H2 molecule and a positronium negative ion, Ps−. The first predictions are made for positronic bonding in dianions consisting of molecular anionic fragments, specifically for (CN)22− and (NCO)22−. In all cases, we find that the molecules formed by the creation of a positronic bond are stable relative to dissociation into A− and e+A− (positron bound to a single anion), with bond energies on the order of 1 eV and bond lengths on the order of several ångstroms.