Properties of Double Cosets with Applications to Theoretical Chemistry

Abstract

A useful model of a molecule is a collection of N atoms or groups of atoms called ligands, each oscillating with small amplitude about an equilibrium position or site, where the N sites form a rigid geometrical figure called a skeleton, that may itself be subject to uniform translation and rotation in space (3,6). An important classification problem is the determination of the number of non-equivalent configurations having the same skeleton and the same numbers of ligands of each kind.