The kinetic energy of molecular charge distributions and molecular stability

Abstract This paper examines the relationship between the topographical features of a molecular charge distribution and the kinetic energy of the system. Specifically, the spatial contributions to the kinetic energy are related to the Laplacian of the total charge density and to the gradients of the natural‐orbital densities. It is concluded that a necessary requirement for molecular stability is the existence of a net negative curvature for the molecular charge distribution in the internuclear region. It is shown that the charge density accumulated in the internuclear region of a stable molecule is distributed in such a way as to keep the accompanying increase in the kinetic energy to a minimum. A comparison of the contributions to the kinetic energy from the atomic and molecular charge distributions indicates that in the formation of a stable molecule the contribution from the molecular charge density in the binding region is decreased relative to that of the atoms.