Calculation of nuclear magnetic shieldings. X. Relativistic effects.

The lowest order relativistic effect theory for nuclear magnetic shieldings was derived from a two-component positive energy Hamiltonian. It was shown that the previous relativistic shielding theory based on the two-component Hamiltonian is not gauge invariant and the new terms have to be added to make a result gauge invariant. The presented theory is gauge invariant to the order of (Z/137)4 where Z is the atomic number of the heaviest atom in the molecule. One of the new contributions to the relativistic magnetic shieldings is a second-order perturbation term due to the combination of the spin-orbit interaction and the Fermi-contact interaction. A numerical estimation for this term was performed for the four hydrogen halides, HF, HCl, HBr, and HI. The computational results showed that the contribution of this term to the hydrogen shieldings is negligibly small, but the contribution to the halogen atoms is considerable. © 1996 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]