Plenary Lecture

Through the Element Chart into Periodic Systems of Molecules

Prof. Ray Hefferlin
Southern Adventist University
TN, USA
hefferln@southern.edu

Abstract: Imagine that one of the compartments of the element chart is a door through which we can enter to explore molecular space. Suppose that the door we select is labelled "C". We enter and find all diatomic molecules with a carbon atom. After repeating this brief exploration for all the doors, we find that to a very good approximation, the properties of free diatomic molecules echo analogous properties (e.g., "sizes," high-energy cross-sections) of the two atoms which form them. We can express this mathematically by embedding the element chart in a null matrix and taking the outer product of the matrix with itself. This elegant four-dimensional system covers several proposed periodic charts of diatomic molecules: their originating element charts can be subjected to outer multiplication in silico to reproduce them. Graph-plotting and least-squares smoothing applications were used extensively with show the faithfulness of the four-dimensional periodic system of diatomic molecules. It has been used to forecast data (using neural-network protocols) such as 1,920 new ground-state vibration frequencies. The average 1% confidence limit is 10.66%; the accuracy is such that the forecasts for 221 of 224 training molecules agree with the training data within the forecasting confidence limits or fall outside by less than 10% of the training values, and 181 agree within the confidence limits. Returning to our starting point, we can re-enter the doors and go farther to explore all triatomic molecules with one or more carbon atoms. Data for gas-phase triatomics also manifest periodicity, and we can take the outer product of the element-chart matrix with itself twice to form the periodic system of triatomic molecules. Such systems also have been used in the predictive mode with the help of multiple-regression and neural-network executables. Yet again we can re-enter and explore classes of larger species (e.g., halomethanes) in various phases; again we use graphics applications and we discover periodicity and second periodicity sufficiently-well resolved that we can forecast data for numerous properties. Finally, we can enter still once more and explore species, whatever their atomic constituents, that have the same total electron number as the element whose door we select. This entry allows the study of ionized and quarked molecules, and the linking of all periodic systems by means of hyper-periodicity.

Brief Biography of the Speaker:
Dr. Ray Hefferlin was born in Paris, France, and went with his father to the United States because World War II was imminent. His education took place at the University of California, Berkeley, at Pacific Union College (BA, physics), and at the California Institute of Technology (PhD, Physics). He has been a member of the faculty of Southern Adventist University since 1955. Dr. Hefferlin took leaves of absence at universities in Tennessee, Colorado, and Leningrad. He consulted at the National Institute of Science and Technology (spectral-feature intensity constants) and at laboratories of the DOE (spectroscopic studies of rare-gas quenching and impurity species in thermonuclear fusion reactors) and NASA (optical spectroscopic studies of the luminous plumes resulting from entry of spacecraft into the atmospheres of the earth and other planets). This laboratory work stimulated the interest in periodic systems of molecules, a field to which he with his students and colleagues world-wide have contributed some 50 publications. Dr. Hefferlin's wife, Inelda, is from California. She is very active in civic affairs. They enjoy travelling, languages, and hiking. Their family includes four daughters and sons-in-law, and six grandsons.