WHATS IN A NAME - TRANSITION-STATE OR CRITICAL TRANSITION STRUCTURE

Such information is of general chemical interest. The assignment of specific structures to the components of chemi-cal systems is a basic requirement for quantitative descriptions of the reactants and their conversion to products. Knowledge of the spectra of CTS's will lead to a more detailed understanding of their properties than is generally possible from examination of product distributions. Additionally, locating various excitation levels for critical transition structures, even roughly (to a precision of about 10%), will provide valuable calibrating data for evaluating interaction parameters incorporated into empirical and semiempirical energy-minimization programs. Finally, a rational model for CTS's should supplant the confusing language chemists use during discussions of mechanisms.