Hartree-Fock accuracy

With such calculations one can approach Hartree-Fock accuracy for a particular cluster of atoms. These calculations yield total energies, and so atomic positions can be varied and equilibrium positions determined for both ground and excited states. There are, however, drawbacks. First, Hartree-Fock accuracy may be insufficient, as correlation effects beyond Hartree-Fock may be of physical importance. Second, the cluster of atoms used in the calculation may be too small to yield an accurate representation of the defect. And third, the exact evaluation of exchange integrals is so demanding on computer resources that it is not practical to carry out such calculations for very large clusters or to extensively vary the atomic positions from calculation to calculation. Typically the clusters are too small for a supercell approach to be used. 

To find the true Hartree-Fock orbitals, one must use a complete set in (1.295), which means using an infinite number of gk s. As a practical matter, one must use a finite number of basis functions, so that one gets approximations to the Hartree-Fock orbitals. However, with a well-chosen basis set, one can approach the true Hartree-Fock orbitals and energy quite closely with a not unreasonably large number of basis functions. Any MOs (or AOs) found by iterative solution of the Hartree-Fock-Roothaan equations are called self-consistent-field (SCF) orbitals, whether or not the basis set is large enough to give near-Hartree-Fock accuracy. 

For any variational wavefunction which is not near the Hartree-Fock limit the Brillouin theorem is irrelevant, and even for those of Hartree-Fock accuracy low-lying important excited states may invalidate the conclusions drawn from it. The statement that values of one-electron properties are expected to be good because of the Brillouin theorem should therefore be regarded with caution. 

The details of the modified electron-gas (MEG) ionic model method have been fully described by Gordon and Kim (1972). The fundamental assumptions of the method are (1) the total electron density at each point is simply the sum of the free-ion densities, with no rearangements or distortion taking place (2) ion-ion interactions are calculated using Coulomb s law, and the free-electron gas approximation is employed to evaluate the electronic kinetic, exchange, and correlation energies (3) the free ions are described by wave functions of Hartree-Fock accuracy. Note that this method does not iterate to a self-consistent electron density. 

All of these theoretical studies, whether by MO or DFT methods, provide support for the HSAB Principle, Hard likes hard, and soft likes soft . This is easily seen in Equation (2.16). Obviously if one reactant easily loses electrons, it is best if the other reactant easily gains electrons. Support for the HSAB Principle also comes from ab-initio calculations of Hartree-Fock accuracy on combinations of hard and soft metal ions with hard and soft neutral ligands." ... 

Aif initio LCAO-MO-SCF wavefunctions (of near-Hartree-Fock accuracy) have been obtained for the systems BCN, BNC, BCC, CBC, BBC, and BCB. ... 

These authors maintain that properties, such as the dipole moment, polarizabilities, and infrared intensities, can be reproduced with near Hartree— Fock accuracy using a relatively small DZP + diffuse basis. In the review by Davidson and Feller the results from an atom-fixed ANO basis are compared with results obtained from many other types of basis sets for a variety of energy-related and 1-elearon properties of formaldehyde. 

A highly readable account of early efforts to apply the independent-particle approximation to problems of organic chemistry. Although more accurate computational methods have since been developed for treating all of the problems discussed in the text, its discussion of approximate Hartree-Fock (semiempirical) methods and their accuracy is still useful. Moreover, the view supplied about what was understood and what was not understood in physical organic chemistry three decades ago is... 

Direct dynamics attempts to break this bottleneck in the study of MD, retaining the accuracy of the full electronic PES without the need for an analytic fit of data. The first studies in this field used semiclassical methods with semiempirical [66,67] or simple Hartree-Fock [68] wave functions to heat the electrons. These first studies used what is called BO dynamics, evaluating the PES at each step from the elech onic wave function obtained by solution of the electronic structure problem. An alternative, the Ehrenfest dynamics method, is to propagate the electronic wave function at the same time as the nuclei. Although early direct dynamics studies using this method [69-71] restricted themselves to adiabatic problems, the method can incorporate non-adiabatic effects directly in the electionic wave function. 

Having the Slater atomic orbitals, the linear combination approximation to molecular orbitals, and the SCF method as applied to the Fock matrix, we are in a position to calculate properties of atoms and molecules ab initio, at the Hartree-Fock level of accuracy. Before doing that, however, we shall continue in the spirit of semiempirical calculations by postponing the ab initio method to Chapter 10 and invoking a rather sophisticated set of approximations and empirical substitutions... 

Correlation can be added as a perturbation from the Hartree-Fock wave function. This is called Moller-Plesset perturbation theory. In mapping the HF wave function onto a perturbation theory formulation, HF becomes a hrst-order perturbation. Thus, a minimal amount of correlation is added by using the second-order MP2 method. Third-order (MP3) and fourth-order (MP4) calculations are also common. The accuracy of an MP4 calculation is roughly equivalent to the accuracy of a CISD calculation. MP5 and higher calculations are seldom done due to the high computational cost (A time complexity or worse). 

Density functionals can be broken down into several classes. The simplest is called the Xa method. This type of calculation includes electron exchange but not correlation. It was introduced by J. C. Slater, who in attempting to make an approximation to Hartree-Fock unwittingly discovered the simplest form of DFT. The Xa method is similar in accuracy to HF and sometimes better. 

There are several ways to include relativity in ah initio calculations more efficiently at the expense of a bit of accuracy. One popular technique is the Dirac-Hartree-Fock technique, which includes the one-electron relativistic terms. Another option is computing energy corrections to the nonrelativistic wave function without changing that wave function. 

Single point energy calculations can be performed at any level of theory and with small or large basis sets. The ones we ll do in this chapter will be at the Hartree-Fock level with medium-sized basis sets, but keep in mind that high accuracy energy computations are set up and interpreted in very much the same way. 

Each cell in the chart defines a model chemistry. The columns correspond to differcni theoretical methods and the rows to different basis sets. The level of correlation increases as you move to the right across any row, with the Hartree-Fock method jI the extreme left (including no correlation), and the Full Configuration Interaction method at the right (which fuUy accounts for electron correlation). In general, computational cost and accuracy increase as you move to the right as well. The relative costs of different model chemistries for various job types is discussed in... 

Solution of the numerical HF equations to full accuracy is routine in the case of atoms. We say that such calculations are at the Hartree-Fock limit. These represent the best solution possible within the orbital model. For large molecules, solutions at the HF limit are not possible, which brings me to my next topic. 

In considering the Hartree-Fock energy Z HF given by Eq. 11.45, we observe that, even for atoms, there are actually only a few such energies published in the literature and that, even in simple cases, there may be discrepancies between the results of different authors. The point is that the atomic Hartree-Fock functions are usually tabulated with only three decimal figures, and this numerical accuracy is often not sufficient for obtaining the accuracy desired... 

For systems containing three or more electrons very little is so far known about the foundation for the method of correlated wave functions, and research on this problem would be highly desirable. It seems as if one could expect good energy results by means of a wave function being a product of a properly scaled Hartree-Fock function and a correlation factor" containing the interelectronic distances ru (Krisement 1957), but too little is known about the limits of accuracy of such an approach. 

Besides the elementary properties of index permutational symmetry considered in eq. (7), and intrinsic point group symmetry of a given tensor accounted for in eqs. (8)-(14), much more powerful group-theoretical tools [6] can be developed to speed up coupled Hartree-Fock (CHF) calculations [7-11] of hyperpolarizabilities, which are nowadays almost routinely periformed in a number of studies dealing with non linear response of molecular systems [12-35], in particular at the self-consistent-field (SCF) level of accuracy. 

The theoretical results provided by the large basis sets II-V are much smaller than those from previous references [15-18] the present findings confirm that the second-hyperpolarizability is largely affected by the basis set characteristics. It is very difficult to assess the accuracy of a given CHF calculation of 2(ap iS, and it may well happen that smaller basis sets provide theoretical values of apparently better quality. Whereas the diagonal eomponents of the eleetrie dipole polarizability are quadratic properties for which the Hartree-Fock limit can be estimated with relative accuracy a posteriori, e.g., via extended calculations [38], it does not seem possible to establish a variational principle for, and/or upper and lower bounds to, either and atris-... 

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