Models independent particle, electron correlation

There are many ways to improve this independent-particle model by incorporating electron correlation in the spatial part Hylleraas function [Hyl29] and the method of configuration interaction (Cl) will be used as illustrations. 

In such a case we say that there is no correlation between the particles. This would certainly be the case if there were no electrostatic interaction between electrons, but it also holds for the electrons in Hartree s original SCF model. This is because each electron experiences an average potential due to the remaining electrons and the nuclei. Electrons repel each other, and we would certainly expect the probability of finding two of them close together would be reduced compared to the value expected for independent particles. 

The general idea of using different orbitals for different spins" seems thus to render an important extension of the entire framework of the independent-particle model. There seem to be essential physical reasons for a comparatively large orbital splitting depending on correlation, since electrons with opposite spins try to avoid each other because of their mutual Coulomb repulsion, and, in systems with unbalanced spins, there may further exist an extra exchange polarization of the type emphasized by Slater. 

This quantity is of great importance, since it actually contains all information about electron correlation, as we will see presently. Like the density, the pair density is also a non-negative quantity. It is symmetric in the coordinates and normalized to the total number of non-distinct pairs, i. e., N(N-l).8 Obviously, if electrons were identical, classical particles that do not interact at all, such as for example billiard balls of one color, the probability of finding one electron at a particular point of coordinate-spin space would be completely independent of the position and spin of the second electron. Since in our model we view electrons as idealized mass points with no volume, this would even include the possibility that both electrons are simultaneously found in the same volume element. In this case the pair density would reduce to a simple product of the individual probabilities, i.e.,... 

The most widely used qualitative model for the explanation of the shapes of molecules is the Valence Shell Electron Pair Repulsion (VSEPR) model of Gillespie and Nyholm (25). The orbital correlation diagrams of Walsh (26) are also used for simple systems for which the qualitative form of the MOs may be deduced from symmetry considerations. Attempts have been made to prove that these two approaches are equivalent (27). But this is impossible since Walsh s Rules refer explicitly to (and only have meaning within) the MO model while the VSEPR method does not refer to (is not confined by) any explicitly-stated model of molecular electronic structure. Thus, any proof that the two approaches are equivalent can only prove, at best, that the two are equivalent at the MO level i.e. that Walsh s Rules are contained in the VSEPR model. Of course, the transformation to localised orbitals of an MO determinant provides a convenient picture of VSEPR rules but the VSEPR method itself depends not on the independent-particle model but on the possibility of separating the total electronic structure of a molecule into more or less autonomous electron pairs which interact as separate entities (28). The localised MO description is merely the simplest such separation the general case is our Eq. (6)... 

The various methods used in quantum chemistry make it possible to compute equilibrium intermolecular distances, to describe intermolecular forces and chemical reactions too. The usual way to calculate these properties is based on the independent particle model this is the Hartree-Fock method. The expansion of one-electron wave-functions (molecular orbitals) in practice requires technical work on computers. It was believed for years and years that ab initio computations will become a routine task even for large molecules. In spite of the enormous increase and development in computer technique, however, this expectation has not been fulfilled. The treatment of large, extended molecular systems still needs special theoretical background. In other words, some approximations should be used in the methods which describe the properties of molecules of large size and/or interacting systems. The further approximations are to be chosen carefully this caution is especially important when going beyond the HF level. The inclusion of the electron correlation in the calculations in a convenient way is still one of the most significant tasks of quantum chemistry. 

Independent particle model and electron correlation expansion... 

In section 2, we provide a description of the methods employed in the present study the generation of Gaussian-type basis sets, the independent particle model and the treatment of electron correlation effects, and, the computational details. Results are presented and discussed in section 3. Section 4 contains our conclusions. 

It is likely that different quantum chemical models will perform differently in each of these situations. Processes which involve net loss or gain of an electron pair are likely to be problematic for Hartree-Fock models, which treat the electrons as essentially independent particles, but less so for density functional models and MP2 models, which attempt to account for electron correlation. Models should fare better for processes in which reactants and products are similar and benefit from cancellation of errors, than those where reactants and products are markedly different. The only exception might be for semi-empirical models, which have been explicitly parameterized to reproduce individual experimental heats of formation, and might not be expected to benefit from error cancellation. 

The major difficulty in wave function based calculations is that, starting from an independent-particle model, correlation between electrons of opposite spin must somehow be introduced into T. Inclusion of this type of electron correlation is essential if energies are to be computed with any degree of accuracy. How, through the use of multiconfigurational wave functions, correlation between electrons of opposite spin is incorporated into is the subject of Section 3.2.3. 

In order to improve the theoretical description of a many-body system one has to take into consideration the so-called correlation effects, i.e. to deal with the problem of accounting for the departures from the simple independent particle model, in which the electrons are assumed to move independently of each other in an average field due to the atomic nucleus and the other electrons. Making an additional assumption that this average potential is spherically symmetric we arrive at the central field concept (Hartree-Fock model), which forms the basis of the atomic shell structure and the chemical regularity of the elements. Of course, relativistic effects must also be accounted for as corrections, if they are small, or already at the very beginning starting with the relativistic Hamiltonian and relativistic wave functions. 

Since his appointment at the University of Waterloo, Paldus has fully devoted himself to theoretical and methodological aspects of atomic and molecular electronic structure, while keeping in close contact with actual applications of these methods in computational quantum chemistry. His contributions include the examination of stability conditions and symmetry breaking in the independent particle models,109 many-body perturbation theory and Green s function approaches to the many-electron correlation problem,110 the development of graphical methods for the time-independent many-fermion problem,111 and the development of various algebraic approaches and an exploration of convergence properties of perturbative methods. His most important... 

Apart from the demands of the Pauli principle, the motion of electrons described by the wavefunction P° attached to the Hamiltonian H° is independent. This situation is called the independent particle or single-particle picture. Examples of single-particle wavefunctions are the hydrogenic functions (pfr,ms) introduced above, and also wavefunctions from a Hartree-Fock (HF) approach (see Section 7.3). HF wavefunctions follow from a self-consistent procedure, i.e., they are derived from an ab initio calculation without any adjustable parameters. Therefore, they represent the best wavefunctions within the independent particle model. As mentioned above, the description of the Z-electron system by independent particle functions then leads to the shell model. However, if the Coulomb interaction between the electrons is taken more accurately into account (not by a mean-field approach), this simplified picture changes and the electrons are subject to a correlated motion which is not described by the shell model. This correlated motion will be explained for the simplest correlated system, the ground state of helium. 

The term "electron correlation energy" is usually defined as the difference between the exact nonrelativistic energy and the energy provided by the simplest MO wave function, the mono-determinantal Hartree-Fock wave function. This latter model is based on the "independent particle" approximation, according to which each electron moves in an average potential provided by the other electrons [14]. Within this definition, it is customary to distinguish between non dynamical and dynamical electron correlation. 

In addition, comparison to solutions of the Hubbard and PPP models including electron correlation shows the VB wave function to be a more accurate initial approximation than the Hartree Fock solution at the correlation strengths likely to be encountered in realistic semiempirical models. In spite of the qualitative superiority of the VB wave function, systematic computational approaches to more accurate treatment of correlation are still most readily achieved when starting from the independent particle limit, but the correlated wave functions thus built up are likely to be interpretable in valence bond terms. 

Many-body perturbation theory in its lowest order form, which is often designated MP2, continues to be the most widely used of the ab initio approaches to the molecular electronic structure problem which go beyond an independent particle model and take account of the effects of electron correlation. The main focus of the present review has been on some of the emerging fields in which MP2 calculations are being carried out. Obviously, within the limited space available it has not possible to cover all of the fields of application. Some selectivity has been necessary, but the choices made do provide a snapshot of the range of contemporary applications of chemical modelling using many-body perturbation theory. 

Recent years have seen a growing interest in the simultaneous description of electronic and nuclear motion. The nonadiabatic coupling between the electronic and nuclear motion manifest itself in numerous and rather diverse phenomena. An independent particle model can be formulated in which the averaged interactions between the electrons, between the electrons and the nuclei and between the nuclei are described quantum mechanically. Multicomponent MBPT can then be used to formulate the corresponding correlation problem accounting for electron-electron interactions, electron-nucleus interactions and nucleus-nucleus interactions in either algebraic or diagrammatic terms. 

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