- 89 - uV = Y e-Ev/kT (5.16) v where v is the vibrational quantum number and E is the v energy of the v-th vibrational state. The. molecule can be treated as an harmonic oscillator having a molecular binding force described by Hooke's law, with the corresponding potential V(r) = k(r - r )2 (5.17) 2 e where r is the separation distance between the atoms, k is the force constant, and re the equilibrium position. The oscillatory energy eigenvalues corresponding to (5.17) are Ev= (v + 1)hw, v=O, 1, 2, . . . (5.18) where w = Vk7jY, the classical vibrational frequency = M1m2/(m1 + M2), the reduced mass When (5.18) is used in (5.16), the partition function becomes -(v + 1)h1//kT 1 uV e = csch((I w/kt) (5.19) The expression (5.19) should be very accurate for small