Structural Determination of the Symmetry-Breaking Parameter in<i>trans</i>-<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mo>(</mml:mo><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">CH</mml:mi><mml:mo>)</mml:mo></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mi>x</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:msub></mml:mrow></mml:math>

Abstract

The magnitude of the symmetry-breaking dimerization distortion has been determined by analysis of x-ray scattering data from trans-${(\mathrm{CH})}_{x}$ ${u}_{0}\ensuremath{\simeq}0.03$ \AA{}.This distortion can account for the magnitude of the energy gap, implying that electron-electron interactions do not dominate the physics of long-chain polyenes.