Spin-orbit coupling ground-state reactivity

Finally, some spectroscopic applications for pseudopotentials within SOCI methods are presented in section 3. We focus our attention on applications related to relativistic averaged and spin-orbit pseudopotentials (other effective core potentials applications are presented in chapters 6 and 7 in this book). Due to the large number of theoretical studies carried out so far, we have chosen to illustrate the different SOCI methods and discuss a few results, rather than to present an extensive review of the whole set of pseudopotential spectroscopic applications which would be less informative. Concerning the works not reported here, we refer to the exhaustive and up-to-date bibliography on relativistic molecular studies by Pyykko [21-24]. The choice of an application is made on the basis of its ability to illustrate the performances on both the pseudopotential and the SOCI methods. One has to keep in mind that it is not easy to compare objectively different pseudopotentials in use since this would require the same conditions in calculations (core definition, atomic basis set, SOCI method). The applications are separated into gas phase (section 3.1) and embedded (section 3.2) molecular applications. Even if the main purpose of this chapter is to deal with applications to molecular spectroscopy, it is of great interest to underline the importance of the spin-orbit coupling on the ground state reactivity of open-shell systems. A case study is presented in section 3.1.4. 

The ab initio spin-coupled valence bond (SCVB) approach continues to provide accurate ground and excited state potential energy surfaces for use in a variety of subsequent applications, with particular emphasis on intermolecular forces and reactive systems. The compactness of the various wavefunctions allows direct and clear interpretation of the correlated electronic structure of molecular systems. Recent developments, in the form of SCVB and MR-SCVB, involve the optimization of virtual orbitals via an approximate energy expression. These improved virtuals lead to still higher accuracy for the final variational wavefunctions, but with even more compact wavefunctions. 

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