A parity function for studying the molecular electronic structure

Sections through the molecular Wigner function with zero momentum variable are shown to provide important information about the off‐diagonal regions of the spinless one‐particle reduced density matrix. Since these regions are characteristic for the bonding situation in molecules, the sections are qualitatively even more affected by the presence of chemical bonds than a complementary projection, the reciprocal form factor. In this paper we discuss, on the grounds of a variety of examples, how this rather simple function may aid the understanding of the chemical bond on a one‐particle level.