Quantum-chemical variational principle

The quality of the applied basis set may be inferred from the calculated total energy. By means of the quantum-chemical variational principle the true energy is a lower bound to the calculated total energy value, i.e. the lower the calculated (negative) total energy, the better the basis set applied. 

Manolopoulos D E, Dmello M and Wyatt R E 1989 Quantum reactive scattering via the log derivative version of the Kohn variational principle—general theory for bimolecular chemical reactions J. Chem. Phys. 91 6096... 

Nevertheless, the situation is not completely hopeless. There is a recipe for systematically approaching the wave function of the ground state P0> i- c., the state which delivers the lowest energy E0. This is the variational principle, which holds a very prominent place in all quantum-chemical applications. We recall from standard quantum mechanics that the expectation value of a particular observable represented by the appropriate operator O using any, possibly complex, wave function Etrial that is normalized according to equation (1-10) is given by... 

For chemical purposes, substitution of total energy hypersurfaces by those based on the heat of formation seems more reasonable, with the difference given by the zero point energy corrections. However, their calculations from first principles can be rather cumbersome (12) and, moreover, for a given variation of some nuclear coordinates it usually can be assumed that the change in zero point energy is small compared to that of the total energy. On the other hand, se eral semiempirical quantum chemical procedures which are appropriately parametrized often yield satisfactory approximations for molecular heats of formation (10) and, therefore, AH hypersurfaces have become rather common. 

Thus the one-particle basis determines the MOs, which in turn determine the JV-particle basis. If the one-paxticle basis were complete, it would at least in principle be possible to form a complete jV-particle basis, and hence to obtain an exact wave function variationally. This wave function is sometimes referred to as the complete Cl wave function. However, a complete one-paxticle basis would be of infinite dimension, so the one-paxticle basis must be truncated in practical applications. In that case, the iV-particle basis will necessarily be incomplete, but if all possible iV-paxticle basis functions axe included we have a full Cl wave function. Unfortunately, the factorial dependence of the iV-paxticle basis size on the one-particle basis size makes most full Cl calculations impracticably large. We must therefore commonly use truncated jV-paxticle spaces that axe constructed from truncated one-paxticle spaces. These two truncations, JV-particle and one-particle, are the most important sources of uncertainty in quantum chemical calculations, and it is with these approximations that we shall be mostly concerned in this course. We conclude this section by pointing out that while the analysis so fax has involved a configuration-interaction approach to solving Eq. 1.2, the same iV-particle and one-particle space truncation problems arise in non-vaxiational methods, as will be discussed in detail in subsequent chapters. 

It is by no means easy to say whether d polarization orbitals are needed in the quantum-chemical description of phosphorus and sulphur compounds. Because of the variational principle, one has to be exceptionally unlucky not to ameliorate an approximate P when introducing a new free parameter. But the question is whether the d polarization orbitals are an essential aspect of the unknown (and somewhat Platonic) true St. This is a very profound question related to the problem whether the natural spin-orbitals (introduced by Lowdin) having occupation numbers closely below 1 are those which define the preponderant configuration. It is now known... 

In order to obtain the potential energy surfaces associated with chemical reactions we, typically, need the lowest eigenvalue of the electronic Hamiltonian. Unlike systems such as a harmonic oscillator and the hydrogen atom, most problems in quantum mechanics cannot be solved exactly. There are, however, approximate methods that can be used to obtain solutions to almost any degree of accuracy. One such method is the variational method. This method is based on the variational principle, which says... 

Except for a small number of intensively-studied examples, the Schrodinger equation for most problems of chemical interest cannot be solved exactly. The variational principle provides a guide for constructing the best possible approximate solutions of a specified functional form. Suppose that we seek an approximate solution for the ground state of a quantum system described by a Hamiltonian H. We presume that the Schrodinger equation... 

We have thus been able to construct a wave function that describes the qualitative behavior of the electronic stmcture for all internuclear distances. The price we have paid is to leave the single configurational description and construct the wave function as a linear combination of several configurations (determinants) with expansion coefficients to be determined by the variational principle together with the molecular orbital coefficients. This is the multiconfigurational approach in quantum chemistry. Before we end this section let us take a look at a more complex chemical bond, that in the Cr2 molecule. 

Since its eigenvalues correspond to the allowed energy states of a quantum-mechanical system, the time-independent Schrodinger equation plays an important role in the theoretical foundation of atomic and molecular spectroscopy. For cases of chemical interest, the equation is always easy to write down but impossible to solve exactly. Approximation techniques are needed for the application of quantum mechanics to atoms and molecules. The purpose of this subsection is to outline two distinct procedures—the variational principle and perturbation theory— that form the theoretical basis for most methods used to approximate solutions to the Schrodinger equation. Although some tangible connections are made with ideas of quantum chemistry and the independent-particle approximation, the presentation in the next two sections (and example problem) is intended to be entirely general so that the scope of applicability of these approaches is not underestimated by the reader. 

Miller W H 1994 S-matrix version of the Kohn variational principle for quantum scattering theory of chemical reactions Adv. Mol. Vibrations and Collision Dynamics vol 2A, ed J M Bowman (Greenwich, CT JAI Press) pp 1-32... 

However, there is a stationary variation principle of precisely the type employed in the quantum chemical linear variation method. In the derivation of the Roothaan equations based on finite basis set expansions of Schrodinger wavefimctions, one insists only that the Rayleigh quotient be stationary with respect to the variational parameters, and then assumes that the variational principle guarantees an absolute minimum. In the corresponding linear equations based on the Dirac equation, the stationary condition is imposed, but no further assumption is made about the nature of the stationary point. 

Explicitly correlated wave function fheory [14] is anofher imporfanf approach in quantum chemistry. One introduces inter-electron distances together with the nuclear-electron distances and set up some presumably accurate wave function and applies the variation principle. The Hylleraas wave function reported in 1929 [15] was the first of this theory and gave accurate results for the helium atom. Many important studies have been published since then even when we limit ourselves to the helium atom [16-28]. They clarified the natures and important aspects of very accurate wave functions. However, the explicitly correlated wave function theory has not been very popularly used in the studies of chemical problems in comparison with the Hartree-Fock and electron correlation approach. One reason was that it was generally difficult to formulate very accurate wave functions of general molecules with intuitions alone and another reason was that this approach was rather computationally demanding. 

Using the H and H2 examples, we found that a chemical bond results from a quantum effect of an electron density flow toward the bond region. This results from a superposition of atomic orbitals due to the variational principle. 

One may see therefore that there are basically three variational principles, i.e., for electronegativity, chemical action and chemical hardness that assure the optimum of charge-potential, density-potential, and density-charge relationships, respectively, while the quantum fluetuations are resolved by the residual minimum electronegativity and by residual maximum chemical hardness principles. 

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