Electronic structure methods exchange-correlation functional

During last decades the DFT based methods have received a wide circulation in calculations on TMCs electronic structure [34,85-88]. It is, first of all, due to widespread use of extended basis sets, allowing to improve the quality of the calculated electronic density, and, second, due to development of successful (so called - hybrid) parameterizations for the exchange-correlation functionals vide infra for discussion). It is generally believed, that the DFT-based methods give in case of TMCs more reliable results, than the HER non-empirical methods and that their accuracy is comparable to that which can be achieved after taking into account perturbation theory corrections to the HER at the MP2 or some limited Cl level [88-90]. 

In recent years, density functional theory (DFT) has become the most widely used electronic structure method for large molecular systems. The Kohn-Sham DFT method accounts for exchange and correlation effects via a particular exchange correlation functional. In its present form, Kohn-Sham DFT is not, strictly speaking, an ab initio method, since the functionals contain empirical parameters. 

The development that led to the emergence of DFT to its current status as the most widely used electronic structure computational method is that due to KS [274]. The ansatz used by KS replaces the interacting problem with an auxiliary independent particle one, with all the many-body effects included in an exchange-correlation functional. In practice, the KS scheme introduces an equivalent orbital picture (rigorously established), with the resulting KS equations solved self-consistently. 

Because modern DFT methods possess the foregoing advantages relative to traditional correlated electronic structure formalisms, DFT has rapidly gained popularity as a tool in computational chemistry applications in recent years. The successive improvements in the exchange-correlation functionals, in concert with increased computational capabilities, has enabled us to calculate the geometries. 

In addition to the ab initio approach to relativistic electronic structure of molecules, four-component Kohn-Sham programs, which approximate the electron-electron interaction by approximate exchange-correlation functionals from density functional theory, have also been developed (Liu et al. 1997 Sepp et al. 1986). However, we concentrate on the ab initio methods and refer the reader to Chapter 4, which treats relativistic density functional theory (RDFT). 

Density functional techniques are available for the calculation of the molecular and electronic structures of ground state systems. With the functionals available today, these compete with the best ab initio methods. This article focuses on the theoretical aspects associated with the Kohn Sham density functional procedure. While there is much room for improvement, the Kohn-Sham exchange-correlation functional offers a great opportunity for theoretical development without returning to the uniform electron gas approximation. Theoretical work in those areas will contribute significantly to the development of new, highly precise density functional methods. 

The combination of the Dirac-Kohn-Sham scheme with non-relativis-tic exchange-correlation functionals is sometimes termed the Dirac-Slater approach, since the first implementations for atoms [13] and molecules [14] used the Xa exchange functional. Because of the four-component (Dirac) structure, such methods are sometimes called fully relativistic although the electron interaction is treated without any relativistic corrections, and almost no results of relativistic density functional theory in its narrower sense [7] are included. For valence properties at least, the four-component structure of the effective one-particle equations is much more important than relativistic corrections to the functional itself. This is not really a surprise given the success of the Dirac-Coulomb operator in wave function based relativistic ab initio theory. Therefore a major part of the applications of relativistic density functional theory is done performed non-rela-tivistic functionals. 

Nowadays, many electronic structure codes include efficient implementations [37—41] of the Ramsey equations [42] for the calciflations of nonrelativistic spin—spin coupling constants. A vast number of publications devoted to the calculation of/-couplings can be found in the Hterature, covering different aspects such as the basis set effects [43-55], the comparison of wave function versus density functional theory (DFT) methods [56-60], or the choice of exchange-correlation functional in DFT approaches [61-68]. Excellent recent reviews of Contreras [69] andHelgaker [70] cover these particular aspects. 

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