Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-chemistry-course-of-the-year-3-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2022/paper-2a/section-a/15/b/solution
Past exam of the chemistry course of the year 3 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2022 Paper 2A Section A 15 b Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-20
The ground state changes from high-spin , , to low-spin , . The larger splitting eventually compensates the additional pairing cost. Because all plotted excitation energies are re-referenced to the new ground state, the branches change slope at the crossover. The break is not an infinite physical excitation energy or a discontinuity of the underlying Hamiltonian.
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