Topics in chemical physics: I, Semiclassical reactive scattering theory: II, Corrected effective medium theory

Two distinct areas within theoretical chemical physics are investigated in this dissertation. First, the dynamics of collinear exchange reactions is treated within a semiclassical Gaussian wavepacket (GWP) description. Second, a corrected effective medium (CEM) theory is derived which yields: a one-active-body description of the binding energy between an atom and an inhomogeneous host; and an N-active-body description of the interaction energy for an N atom system. To properly treat the dynamics of collinear exchange reactions, two extensions to the previous methodology of GWP dynamics are presented: evaluation of the interaction picture wavefunction propagators directly via the GWP solution to the time-dependent Schrodinger equation; and use of an expansion of GWPs to represent the initial translational plane wave. This extended GWP dynamical approach is applied to the H + H2 collinear exchange reaction using the Porter-Karplus II potential energy surface