Toward a Rigorous Definition of a Strength of Any Interaction Between Bader’s Atomic Basins

Strength of interaction between Bader's atomic basins, enclosed by zero-flux surfaces of electron distribution, was proposed to be a measure of elastic deformation of an interaction. The set containing 53 atomic aggregate and covering all range of interaction strength (from van der Waals interactions to triple covalent bonds) was calculated by DFT and perturbation theory methods. Further analysis was performed to seek correlations between various local quantities based on electron density and effective force constants of stretching diatomic vibrations. The linear trend between effective force constants and the potential energy density at the (3, -1) critical point of electron distribution was found. This correlation was improved by the integration of the potential energy density over an interbasin zero-flux surface of electron density. Simple mechanical explanation of established trends is presented. The correlations can be further used to at least semiquantitatively compare any pair of interactions between Bader's atomic basins.