Size-consistent calculations, electron correlation configuration interaction

The electron correlation problem remains a central research area for quantum chemists, as its solution would provide the exact energies for arbitrary systems. Today there exist many procedures for calculating the electron correlation energy (/), none of which, unfortunately, is both robust and computationally inexpensive. Configuration interaction (Cl) methods provide a conceptually simple route to correlation energies and a full Cl calculation will provide exact energies but only at prohibitive computational cost as it scales factorially with the number of basis functions, N. Truncated Cl methods such as CISD (A cost) are more computationally feasible but can still only be used for small systems and are neither size consistent nor size extensive. Coupled cluster... 

The question for a more systematic inclusion of electronic correlation brings us back to the realm of molecular quantum chemistry [51,182]. Recall that (see Section 2.11.3) the exact solution (configuration interaction. Cl) is found on the basis of the self-consistent Hartree-Fock wave function, namely by the excitation of the electrons into the virtual, unoccupied molecular orbitals. Unfortunately, the ultimate goal oi full Cl is obtainable for very small systems only, and restricted Cl is size-inconsistent the amount of electron correlation depends on the size of the system (Section 2.11.3). Thus, size-consistent but perturbative approaches (Moller-Plesset theory) are often used, and the simplest practical procedure (of second order, thus dubbed MP2 [129]) already scales with the fifth order of the system s size N, in contrast to Hartree-Fock theory ( N ). The accuracy of these methods may be systematically improved by going up to higher orders but this makes the calculations even more expensive and slow (MP3 N, MP4 N ). Fortunately, restricted Cl can be mathematically rephrased in the form of the so-called coupled clus-... 

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