Many-body perturbation method

DFT is the modern alternative to the wave-function based ab initio methods and allows to obtain accurate results at low computational cost, that also helps to understand the chemical origin of the effect. DFT, like Hartree-Fock (HF) methods, exploit molecular symmetry which is crucial in the case of computational studies of the JT effect. It also includes correlation effects into the Hamiltonian via the exchange-correlation functional. HF and many-body perturbation methods are found to perform poorly in the analysis of JT systems for obvious reasons, at contrast to the methods based on DFT, or multiconfigurational SCF and coupled cluster based methods [73]. The later are very accurate but have some drawbacks, mainly the very high computational cost that limits the applications to the smaller systems only. Another drawback is the choice of the active space which involves arbitrariness. 

Zakrzewski, V.G., von Niessen, W. Vectorizable algorithm for Green-function and many-body perturbation methods. J. Comput. Chem. 1993,14,13-8. 

The photoabsorption spectrum a(co) of a cluster measures the cross-section for electronic excitations induced by an external electromagnetic field oscillating at frequency co. Experimental measurements of a(co) of free clusters in a beam have been reported, most notably for size-selected alkali-metal clusters [4]. Data for size-selected silver aggregates are also available, both for free clusters and for clusters in a frozen argon matrix [94]. The experimental results for the very small species (dimers and trimers) display the variety of excitations that are characteristic of molecular spectra. Beyond these sizes, the spectra are dominated by collective modes, precursors of plasma excitations in the metal. This distinction provides a clear indication of which theoretical method is best suited to analyze the experimental data for the very small systems, standard chemical approaches are required (Cl, coupled clusters), whereas for larger aggregates the many-body perturbation methods developed by the solid-state community provide a computationally more appealing alternative. We briefly sketch two of these approaches, which can be adapted to a DFT framework (1) the random phase approximation (RPA) of Bohm and Pines [95] and the closely related time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) [96], and (2) the GW method of Hedin and Lundqvist [97]. 

TDHF values are about 5-8% smaller than the accurate ones, this error being halved for the correlated values (SDT-MBPT). For Ne, Ne2, H2, (H2)2, N2, (N2)2 no such correspondingly exact comparison values are available. The same authors have recently [79] calculated, by the same many-body perturbation method, correlated frequency-dependent polarizabilities for HF, H2O, NH3, CO2, computing the dispersion C coefficients up to n = 10 for all the dimers consisting of these molecules and for all their combinations with He, Ne, H2 and N2. 

Fukui, H., Miura, K., and Matsuda, H. (1992a). Calculation of nuclear magnetic shieldings. VIII. Gauge invariant many-body perturbation method. J. Chem. Phys., 96, 2039-2043. 

Z.W. Liu and H.P Kelly, Atomic many-body perturbation method based on mnlticonfiguration Dirac-Fock wave functions, Phys. Rev. A 43, 3305 (1991). 

R. J. Bartlett and G. D. Purvis, Molecular applications of coupled cluster and many-body perturbation methods, Physica Scripta 21 255 (1980). 

M. A. Robb, Application of many body perturbation methods in a discrete orbital basis set, Chem. Phys. Lett. 20 274 (1973). 

Ei=i N F(i), perturbation theory (see Appendix D for an introduetion to time-independent perturbation theory) is used to determine the Ci amplitudes for the CSFs. The MPPT proeedure is also referred to as the many-body perturbation theory (MBPT) method. The two names arose beeause two different sehools of physies and ehemistry developed them for somewhat different applieations. Later, workers realized that they were identieal in their working equations when the UHF H is employed as the unperturbed Hamiltonian. In this text, we will therefore refer to this approaeh as MPPT/MBPT. 

There are three main methods for calculating electron correlation Configuration Interaction (Cl), Many Body Perturbation Theory (MBPT) and Coupled Cluster (CC). A word of caution before we describe these methods in more details. The Slater determinants are composed of spin-MOs, but since the Hamilton operator is independent of spin, the spin dependence can be factored out. Furthermore, to facilitate notation, it is often assumed that the HF determinant is of the RHF type. Finally, many of the expressions below involve double summations over identical sets of functions. To ensure only the unique terms are included, one of the summation indices must be restricted. Alternatively, both indices can be allowed to run over all values, and the overcounting corrected by a factor of 1/2. Various combinations of these assumptions result in final expressions which differ by factors of 1 /2, 1/4 etc. from those given here. In the present book the MOs are always spin-MOs, and conversion of a restricted summation to an unrestricted is always noted explicitly. 

The idea in perturbation methods is that the problem at hand only differs slightly from a problem which has already been solved (exactly or approximately). The solution to the given problem should therefore in some sense be close to the solution of the already known system. This is described mathematically by defining a Hamilton operator which consists of two part, a reference (Hq) and a perturbation (H )- The premise of perturbation methods is that the H operator in some sense is small compared to Hq. In quantum mechanics, perturbational methods can be used for adding corrections to solutions which employ an independent particle approximation, and the theoretical framework is then called Many-Body Perturbation Theory (MBPT). 

If we except the Density Functional Theory and Coupled Clusters treatments (see, for example, reference [1] and references therein), the Configuration Interaction (Cl) and the Many-Body-Perturbation-Theory (MBPT) [2] approaches are the most widely-used methods to deal with the correlation problem in computational chemistry. The MBPT approach based on an HF-SCF (Hartree-Fock Self-Consistent Field) single reference taking RHF (Restricted Hartree-Fock) [3] or UHF (Unrestricted Hartree-Fock ) orbitals [4-6] has been particularly developed, at various order of perturbation n, leading to the widespread MPw or UMPw treatments when a Moller-Plesset (MP) partition of the electronic Hamiltonian is considered [7]. The implementation of such methods in various codes and the large distribution of some of them as black boxes make the MPn theories a common way for the non-specialist to tentatively include, with more or less relevancy, correlation effects in the calculations. 

In ab initio methods (which, by definiton, should not contain empirical parameters), the dynamic correlation energy must be recovered by a true extension of the (single configuration or small Cl) model. This can be done by using a very large basis of configurations, but there are more economical methods based on many-body perturbation theory which allow one to circumvent the expensive (and often impracticable) large variational Cl calculation. Due to their importance in calculations of polyene radical ion excited states, these will be briefly described in Section 4. 

Due to the size of the variational problem, a large Cl is usually not a practicable method for recovering dynamic correlation. Instead, one usually resorts to some form of treatment based on many-body perturbation theory where an explicit calculation of all off-diagonal Cl matrix elements (and the diagonalization of the matrix) are avoided. For a detailed description of such methods, which is beyond the scope of this review, the reader is referred to appropriate textbooks295. For the present purpose, it suffices to mention two important aspects. 

The localized many-body perturbation theory (LMBPT) applies localized HF orbitals which are unitary transforms of the canonical ones in the diagrammatic many-body perturbation theory. The method was elaborated on models of cyclic polyenes in the Pariser-Parr-Pople (PPP) approximation. These systems are considered as not well localized so they are suitable to study the importance of non local effects. The description of LMBPT follows the main points as it was first published in 1984 (Kapuy etal, 1983). 

The main advantage suggested by the use of the localized many-body perturbation theory (LMBPT) is that the local effects can be separated from the non-local ones. The summations in the corrections at a given order can be truncated. As to the practical applicability of the localized representation, a localization (separation) method, satisfying a double requirement is highly desired. Well-localized (separated) orbitals with small off-diagonal Lagrangianmultipliers are required (Kapuy etal., 1983). 

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