Variational calculations wave function expansion, correlation

In this section we shall discuss an approach which is neither variational nor perturba-tional. This approach also has its origin in nuclear physics and was introduced to quantum chemistry by Sinanoglu47, It is based on a cluster expansion of the wave function. A systematic method for the calculation of cluster expansion components of the exact wave function was developed by C ek48 The characteristic feature of this approach is the expansion of the wave function as a linear combination of Slater determinants. Formally, this expansion is similar to the ordinary Cl expansion. The cluster expansion, however, gives us not only the physical insight of the correlation energy but it also shows the connections between the variational approaches (Cl) and the perturbational approaches (e.g. MB-RSPT). 

Presently, the widely used post-Hartree-Fock approaches to the correlation problem in molecular electronic structure calculations are basically of two kinds, namely, those of variational and those of perturbative nature. The former are typified by various configuration interaction (Cl) or shell-model methods, and employ the linear Ansatz for the wave function in the spirit of Ritz variation principle (c/, e.g. Ref. [21]). However, since the dimension of the Cl problem rapidly increases with increasing size of the system and size of the atomic orbital (AO) basis set employed (see, e.g. the so-called Paldus-Weyl dimension formula [22,23]), one has to rely in actual applications on truncated Cl expansions (referred to as a limited Cl), despite the fact that these expansions are slowly convergent, even when based on the optimal natural orbitals (NOs). Unfortunately, such limited Cl expansions (usually truncated at the doubly excited level relative to the IPM reference, resulting in the CISD method) are unable to properly describe the so-called dynamic correlation, which requires that higher than doubly excited configurations be taken into account. Moreover, the energies obtained with the limited Cl method are not size-extensive. 

The applications of this model is mostly restricted to hydrogen and helium like systems. Winkler [25] has calculated the detachment energies of H embedded in a variety of Debye plasmas. He used a correlated description of the two-particle wave functions introducing interparticle coordinate in the expansion of the basis set. The linear variational parameters are determined by solving the generalized secular equation... 

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