Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-chemistry-a-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2021/paper-1/a5/b/ii/solution

For the tetrahedral symmetry classes , each set of four atomic orbitals has
The counts are the fixed sites of each symmetry operation: a threefold rotation fixes one vertex of each tetrahedron, a twofold or improper fourfold operation fixes none, and a diagonal mirror fixes two. Character orthogonality reduces each set to
The dimensions provide a check. Thus the complete eight-orbital model contains two copies of each of and , which can mix across the two species.

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