Hilbert space partitioning bond orders

In order to obtain a bond order formula for open-shell systems that can be applied for both the indep)endent-partide model and correlated wave functions and which simultaneously yields unique bond orders for all spin multiplet components (in the absence of a magnetic field), Alcoba et al. [151, 152] derived a general expression (in the Hilbert space partitioning scheme) from a second-order reduced density matrix. Furthermore, as the first- and second-order reduced density matrices are invariant with respect to the spin projection, they are only a function of the total spin or similarly of the maximum projection S = and the bond order can be evaluated for the highest spin-projected state = S. They arrived at the following expression for the bond order... 

Bond Orders from Hilbert Space Partitioning... 

Although both of these definitions suffer from the obvious limitations imposed by the arbitrariness of the Hilbert space partitioning, equation (17) has been found to produce bond orders that are somewhat less sensitive to the basis set extension effects. In light of the arguments given in the previous sections, neither of these definitions is suitable for rigorous analysis of electronic wavefunctions. The same is true for the shared electron numbers produced by the formalisms developed by Roby and others. ... 

One way of getting rid of distortions and basis set dependence could be that one switches to the formalism developed by Bader [12] according to which the three-dimensional physical space can be partitioned into domains belonging to individual atoms (called atomic basins). In the definition of bond order and valence indices according to this scheme, the summation over atomic orbitals will be replaced by integration over atomic domains [13]. This topological scheme can be called physical space analysis. Table 22.3 shows some examples of bond order indices obtained with this method. Experience shows that the bond order indices obtained via Hilbert space and physical space analysis are reasonably close, and also that the basis set dependence is not removed by the physical space analysis. 

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