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The results of experimental studies of the valence electronic structure of 1-butene by means of electron momentum spectroscopy (EMS) have been reinterpreted on the basis of molecular dynamical simulations in conjunction with the classical MM3 force field. The computed atomic trajectories demonstrate the importance of thermally induced nuclear dynamics in the electronic neutral ground state, in the form of significant deviations from stationary points on the potential energy surface and considerable variations of the C-C-C-C dihedral angle. These motions are found to have a considerable influence on the computed spectral bands and outer-valence electron momentum distributions. Euclidean distances between spherically averaged electron momentum densities confirm that thermally induced nuclear motions need to be fully taken into account for a consistent interpretation of the results of EMS experiments on conformationally flexible molecules.

An extensive study of the valence electronic structure, ionization spectrum and electron momentum distributions of pyrimidine is presented, on the ground of accurate calculations of one-electron and shake-up ionization energies and of the related Dyson orbitals, using one-particle Green’s Function theory in conjunction with the third-order Algebraic Diagrammatic Construction scheme [ADC(3)]. Comparison is made with results obtained from standard (B3LYP) Kohn–Sham orbitals and recent measurements employing Electron Momentum Spectroscopy. Quantitative insights into the experimental momentum distributions are amenable without resorting to any empirical rescaling of pole strengths, provided band overlaps and relaxation effects are properly accounted for.

The results of experimental studies of the valence electronic structure of tetrahydrofuran employing He I photoelectron spectroscopy as well as Electron Momentum Spectroscopy (EMS) have been reinterpreted on the basis of Molecular Dynamical simulations employing the classical MM3 force field and large-scale quantum mechanical simulations employing Born-Oppenheimer Molecular Dynamics in conjunction with the dispersion corrected ωB97XD exchange-correlation functional. Analysis of the produced atomic trajectories demonstrates the importance of thermal deviations from the lowest energy path for pseudorotation, in the form of considerable variations of the ring-puckering amplitude. These deviations are found to have a significant influence on several outer-valence electron momentum distributions, as well as on the He I photoelectron spectrum.

The results of a yet to come experimental study of the electronic structure of biphenyl employing electron momentum spectroscopy (EMS) have been theoretically predicted, taking into account complications such as structural mobility in the electronic ground state, electronic correlation and relaxation, and a dispersion of the inner-valence ionization intensity to electronically excited (shake-up) configurations in the cation. The main purpose of this work is to explore the current limits of EMS in unraveling details of the molecular structure, namely the torsional characteristics of large and floppy aromatic molecules. At the benchmark ADC(3)/cc-pVDZ level of theory, the influence of the twist angle between the two phenyl rings is found to be extremely limited, except for individual orbital momentum profiles corresponding to ionization lines at electron binding energies ranging from 15 to 18 eV. When taking band overlap effects into account, this influence is deceptively far too limited to allow for any experimental determination of the torsional characteristics of biphenyl by means of EMS.

The results of experimental studies of the valence electronic structure of 1-butene employing photoelectron spectroscopy as well as electron momentum spectroscopy are interpreted on the ground of quantitative calculations of one-electron and shake-up ionization energies and of the related Dyson orbitals, using one-particle Green's function theory in conjunction with the third-order algebraic diagrammatic construction scheme (ADC(3)). Comparison is made with simulations of (e, 2e) electron momentum distributions obtained from standard (B3LYP) Kohn–Sham orbitals. Our analysis is based on highly quantitative determinations of the energy difference between the cis and gauche (C1) conformers, within ~0.02 kcal mol−1 accuracy, and a thermostatistical evaluation thereby of conformer weights beyond the level of the rigid rotor harmonic oscillator approximation. Relative entropies are found to be particularly sensitive to hindered rotations. The shake-up onset is located at 15.9 eV, and the orbital picture of ionization breaks down completely at electron binding energies above 19 eV. If the available experimental momentum profiles demonstrate the dominance of the C1 conformer, they are in this case clearly not sensitive enough to the molecular conformation for evaluating conformer abundances with accuracies better than 10% due to the limited energy and momentum resolutions and likely physical complications.