Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-chemistry-course-of-the-year-3-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2021/paper-2a/section-b/23/a/solution

Let denote a small longitudinal displacement from equilibrium, and let every atomic mass be . The constant equilibrium lengths disappear from the second derivatives. The force constant matrix is
The mass-weighted dynamical matrix is , with equations . If the phrase dynamical matrix denotes the unweighted Hessian, that object is instead; the normal-mode equation is in either notation. Every row sums to zero, as required for a freely translating chain.

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