ACCURATE NUMERICAL STUDY OF THE STABILITY OF NA19-CLUSTER DIMERS

We investigate the structure of (Na19)2-cluster dimers via solution of the Kohn-Sham equations for a two-center jellium model. Results for the binding energy of the dimer as a function of the intercluster separation as well as the electronic correlation diagram of the (Na19)2 system are presented. In contrast to previous results, our calculations indicate that the barrier which separates a local minimum in the binding energy at an intercluster separation of about 15 a.u. from the absolute minimum, the united Na38 cluster, is rather small.