We formulate the theory of the perturbation caused by an adsorbate upon the substrate lattice in terms of a local modification of the interatomic potential energy around the adsorption site, which leads to the relaxation of substrate atoms. We apply the approach to CO chemisorption on close-packed metal surfaces, and show that the adsorbate-adsorbate interaction and a variety of other properties can be well described by a simple model.
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