New <i>ab initio</i> potential energy surface and the vibration-rotation-tunneling levels of (H2O)2 and (D2O)2

Abstract

We report a new full-dimensional potential energy surface (PES) for the water dimer, based on fitting energies at roughly 30,000 configurations obtained with the coupled-cluster single and double, and perturbative treatment of triple excitations method using an augmented, correlation consistent, polarized triple zeta basis set. A global dipole moment surface based on Moller-Plesset perturbation theory results at these configurations is also reported. The PES is used in rigorous quantum calculations of intermolecular vibrational frequencies, tunneling splittings, and rotational constants for (H2O)2 and (D2O)2, using the rigid monomer approximation. Agreement with experiment is excellent and is at the highest level reported to date. The validity of this approximation is examined by comparing tunneling barriers within that model with those from fully relaxed calculations.