New bounds for Morse clusters

This paper presents improved lower bounds for the total energy and the minimal inter-particle distance in minimal energy atom cluster problems with interactions given by a Morse potential. The methods use simple arguments and can be employed directly for Morse clusters, where the atom separation problem is difficult due to the finite energy at zero atom separation. The theoretical results are applied numerically achieving sharper results than those previously known for various Morse potentials, even for ρ ≥ 4.967 parameters. Most results hold for more general pair potentials.