Department of Chemistry, University of Minnesota

Introduction to Electrostatics

Timothy J. Giese

Abstract:

This document demonstrates that the Laplace expansion of the Coulomb operator is equivalent to a three-dimensional Taylor series expansion. In doing so, the addition theorems of the regular and irregular solid harmonics are derived. These properties are then used to develop expressions for the Coulomb interaction between charges densities described by point multipoles and Gaussian multipoles. Linear-scaling evaluation of the Coulomb energy via the fast multipole method is discussed.

Reference Links:

"Introduction to Electrostatics (version 01/24/2008)", Timothy J. Giese, Unpublished , (2008).