Orbitals Hartree-Fock method

The application of density functional theory to isolated, organic molecules is still in relative infancy compared with the use of Hartree-Fock methods. There continues to be a steady stream of publications designed to assess the performance of the various approaches to DFT. As we have discussed there is a plethora of ways in which density functional theory can be implemented with different functional forms for the basis set (Gaussians, Slater type orbitals, or numerical), different expressions for the exchange and correlation contributions within the local density approximation, different expressions for the gradient corrections and different ways to solve the Kohn-Sham equations to achieve self-consistency. This contrasts with the situation for Hartree-Fock calculations, wlrich mostly use one of a series of tried and tested Gaussian basis sets and where there is a substantial body of literature to help choose the most appropriate method for incorporating post-Hartree-Fock methods, should that be desired. 

A variation on the HF procedure is the way that orbitals are constructed to reflect paired or unpaired electrons. If the molecule has a singlet spin, then the same orbital spatial function can be used for both the a and P spin electrons in each pair. This is called the restricted Hartree-Fock method (RHF). 

Another way of constructing wave functions for open-shell molecules is the restricted open shell Hartree-Fock method (ROHF). In this method, the paired electrons share the same spatial orbital thus, there is no spin contamination. The ROHF technique is more difficult to implement than UHF and may require slightly more CPU time to execute. ROHF is primarily used for cases where spin contamination is large using UHF. 

Not all iterative semi-empirical or ab initio calculations converge for all cases. For SCF calculations of electronic structure, systems with a small energy gap between the highest occupied orbital and the lowest unoccupied orbital may not converge or may converge slowly. (They are generally poorly described by the Hartree-Fock method.)... 

So far, we have considered only the restricted Hartree-Fock method. For open shell systems, an unrestricted method, capable of treating unpaired electrons, is needed. For this case, the alpha and beta electrons are in different orbitals, resulting in two sets of molecular orbital expansion coefficients ... 

But alas most of what has been described so far concerning density theory applies in theory rather than in practice. The fact that the Thomas-Fermi method is capable of yielding a universal solution for all atoms in the periodic table is a potentially attractive feature but is generally not realized in practice. The attempts to implement the ideas originally due to Thomas and Fermi have not quite materialized. This has meant a return to the need to solve a number of equations separately for each individual atom as one does in the Hartree-Fock method and other ab initio methods using atomic orbitals. 

In the unrestricted Hartree-Fock method, a single-determinant wave function is used with different molecular orbitals for a and jS spins, and the eigenvalue problem is solved with separate F and F matrices. With the zero differential overlap approximation, the F matrix elements (25) become... 

Table 5.3 Contributions of -orbitals to the total electron density at the iron nucleus (in a.u. ) as a function of oxidation state and configuration. Calculations were done with the spin-averaged Hartree-Fock method and a large uncontracted Gaussian basis set. (17 1 Ip 5d If)... 

When the Hartree-Fock method is applied to molecules, molecular orbitals are used instead of atomic orbitals. To construct the molecular orbitals, one widely used approximation is LCAO (linear combinations of atomic orbitals). According to molecular orbital theory, the total wave function of the system is written as a combination of molecular orbitals, spin functions describing electrons in terms of spin j(a) or — j p). 

In the former, electrons are assigned to orbitals in pairs, the total spin is zero, so the multiplicity is 1. In this case, the restricted Hartree-Fock method (RHF) can be applied. For radicals with doublet or triplet states, the unrestricted Hartree-Fock (UHF) has to be applied. In this method, a and, 3 electrons (spin up and spin down) are assigned to different spatial orbitals, so there are two distinct sets I and FJf... 

The corresponding estimate for the second eigenvalue (2s orbital energy) is —0.1789. These results are in good agreement with the actual HF/STO-3G ( Hartree-Fock method with a variational basis set of three-term Gaussians for each Slater-type orbital 10) eigenvalues eis = —2.3692 and e2s = —0.1801. 

The Xa multiple scattering method generates approximate singledeterminant wavefunctions, in which the non-local exchange interaction of the Hartree-Fock method has been replaced by a local term, as in the Thomas-Fermi-Dirac model. The orbitals are solutions of the one-electron differential equation (in atomic units)... 

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. 

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