Spin-unrestricted Hartree-Fock method

Technically, it is possible to define methods in which other restrictions than those on spin are lifted, but the most common unrestricted method is the spin-unrestricted method, and we follow the common usage of UHF for the spin-unrestricted Hartree-Fock method. 

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... 

Spin-density distributions for the radical anions of several compounds including dibenzothiophene have been calculated using the unrestricted Hartree-Fock method. Calculated values were of the same order as observed values but close agreement was not obtained. Hjrperfine splitting constants were also calculated using both Model A and Model B as defined earlier results favored Model B. ... 

Corrections for Improper HF Asymptotic Behaviour.—There are two techniques which may be used to obtain results at what is essentially the Hartree-Fock limit over the complete range of some dissociative co-ordinate in those cases where the single determinants] approximation goes to the incorrect asymptotic limit. These techniques are (i) to describe the system in terms of a linear combination of some minimal number of determinantal wavefunctions (as opposed to just one) 137 and (ii) to employ a single determinantal wavefunction to describe the system but to allow different spatial orbitals for electrons of different spins - the so-called unrestricted Hartree-Fock method. Both methods have been used to determine the potential surfaces for the reaction of an oxygen atom in its 3P and 1Z> states with a hydrogen molecule,138 and we illustrate them through a discussion of this work. 

When the second of the equivalence restrictions is removed, a single determinant wavefunction of lower energy is usually obtained. In fact, it is possible for a wave-function obtained in this way, a so-called unrestricted Hartree-Fock (UHF) wavefunction191 (perhaps more properly called a spin-unrestricted Hartree-Fock wavefunction) to go beyond the Hartree-Fock approximation and thus include some of the correlation energy. Lowdin192 describes this as a method for introducing a Coulomb hole to supplement the Fermi hole already accounted for in the RHF wavefunction. 

The downside to the (spin)-unrestricted Hartree-Fock (UHF) method is that the unrestricted wavefunction usually will not be an eigenfunction of the operator. Since the Hamiltonian and operators commnte, the true wavefunction must be an eigenfunction of both of these operators. The UHF wavefunction is typically contaminated with higher spin states for singlet states, the most important contaminant is the triplet state. A procedure called spin projection can be used to remove much of this contamination. However, geometry optimization is difficult to perform with spin projection. Therefore, great care is needed when an unrestricted wavefunction is utilized, as it must be when the molecule of interest is inherently open shell, like in radicals. 

There are a number of slightly more approximate methods for determining the electron affinity (EA) based on the restricted Hartree-Fock (RHF) and spin-unrestricted Hartree-Fock (UHF) methods. For closed shell anions, molecules which dissociate to... 

Because the convenience of the one-electron formalism is retained, DFT methods can easily take into account the scalar relativistic effects and spin-orbit effects, via either perturbation or variational methods. The retention of the one-electron picture provides a convenient means of analyzing the effects of relativity on specific orbitals of a molecule. Spin-unrestricted Hartree-Fock (UHF) calculations usually suffer from spin contamination, particularly in systems that have low-lying excited states (such as metal-containing systems). By contrast, in spin-unrestricted Kohn-Sham (UKS) DFT calculations the spin-contamination problem is generally less significant for many open-shell systems (39). For example, for transition metal methyl complexes, the deviation of the calculated UKS expectation values S (S = spin angular momentum operator) from the contamination-free theoretical values are all less than 5% (32). 

The SCF orbitals of open-shell systems may be obtained by the (spin) unrestricted Hartree-Fock (UHF) open-shell approach of Pople and Nes-bet (1954). In this method, the orbitals associated with an a spin function are different from those associated with a j8 spin function. So, for a doublet ground state In + 1 electrons), the wave function is written as ... 

The Roothaan-Hall equations are not applicable to open-shell systems, which contain one or more unpaired electrons. Radicals are, by definition, open-shell systems as are some ground-state molecules such as NO and 02. Two approaches have been devised to treat open-shell systems. The first of these is spin-restricted Hartree-Fock (RHF) theory, which uses combinations of singly and doubly occupied molecular orbitals. The closed-shell approach that we have developed thus far is a special case of RHF theory. The doubly occupied orbitals use the same spatial functions for electrons of both a and spin. The orbital expansion Equation (2.144) is employed together with the variational method to derive the optimal values of the coefficients. The alternative approach is the spin-unrestricted Hartree-Fock (UHF) theory of Pople and Nesbet [Pople and Nesbet 1954], which uses two distinct sets of molecular orbitals one for electrons of a spin and the other for electrons of / spin. Two Fock matrices are involved, one for each type of spin, with elements as follows ... 

The perturbation series can be truncated to various orders and one indicates the accuracy of MP methods applied within the Restricted Hartee-Fock (RHF) scheme by referring to the highest-orderterm allowed in the energy expansion. Thus a truncation to second-order corresponds to an MP2 approach, to third-order to an MP3 approach and so forth [27]. MP theory may also be used in the spin-Unrestricted Hartree-Fock (UHF) model. In this case, second- and third-order approximations of MP theory are indicated as UMP2andUMP3. 

The restricted open-shell Hartree-Fock (ROHF) and the unrestricted Hartree Fock Method ( UHF) approximations permit, however, open-shell systems to be described, while maintaining the simplicity of the single-determinant approximation. This is made at the stage of self-consistent electronic-structure calculations. Afterwards, the obtained spin-orbitals can be used to get the correct total spin many-determinant wavefunction and to calculate the corresponding electron energy. 

There is a possibility for more than one solution of the Hartree-Fock equations if different electronic states come close on a potential energy surface. Within the spin-restricted Hartree-Fock (RHF) method, singlet and triplet instabilities are distinguished, The former involves the existence of another solution with lower energy and an electron distribution of lower symmetry, normally indicating that the initially assumed geometry is incorrect. Triplet instability involves rejection of the condition of double occupancy of molecular orbitals and a spin-unrestricted Hartree-Fock (UHF) method treatment is mandatory. The triplet instability is a necessary, but insufficient, condition for a biradical character of a ground state. 

A third alternative is to use projection methods during the determination of the wave function. Annihilated unrestricted Hartree-Fock (AUHF) uses a projector or annihilator to remove spin contamination from the density used to construct the unrestricted a and P Fock matrices. The spin constrained Hartree-Fock method (SUHF) adds A. 

In addition, since the HPHF wavefunction exhibits a two-determinantal form, this model can be used to describe singlet excited states or triplet excited states in which the projection of the spin momentum Ms=0. The HPHF approximation appears thus as a simple method for the direct determination of excited states (with Afs=0)such as the usual Unrestricted Hartree Fock model does for determining triplet excited states with Ms = 1. 

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... 

In diamond, Sahoo et al. (1983) investigated the hyperfine interaction using an unrestricted Hartree-Fock cluster method. The spin density of the muon was calculated as a function of its position in a potential well around the T site. Their value was within 10% of the experimental number. However, the energy profiles and spin densities calculated in this study were later shown to be cluster-size dependent (Estreicher et al., 1985). Estreicher et al., in their Hartree-Fock approach to the study of normal muonium in diamond (1986) and in Si (1987), found an enhancement of the spin density at the impurity over its vacuum value, in contradiction with experiment this overestimation was attributed to the neglect of correlation in the HF method. 

Early determinations of RSE values employed unrestricted Hartree-Fock (UHF) theory in combination with 3-21G [9] or 4-31G [10] basis sets to evaluate the RSE according to Eq. 1. The appropriate consideration of correlation effects, the avoidance of spin contamination, and the treatment of thermochemical corrections have in detail been studied in the following, in particular by Bauschlicher [11], Coote [12-14], Morokuma [15-18], and Radom [19-25]. Highly accurate RSE and BDE results can be obtained with high level compound methods such as the G2 [26-30] and G3 [31-34] schemes (and variants thereof [11,15-18]), as well as extrapolation methods such as the CBS schemes [35,36], Wl, or W2 [37-39]. Generally, the accurate... 

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