Wave-function based methods configuration interactions

Density-functional theory (DFT) is one of the most widely used quantum mechanical approaches for calculating the structure and properties of matter on an atomic scale. It is nowadays routinely applied for calculating physical and chemical properties of molecules that are too large to be treatable by wave-function-based methods. The problem of determining the many-body wave function of a real system rapidly becomes prohibitively complex. Methods such as configuration interaction (Cl) expansions, coupled cluster (CC) techniques or Moller Plesset (MP) perturbation theory thus become harder and harder to apply. Computational complexity here is related to questions such as how many atoms there are in the molecule, how many electrons each atom contributes, how many basis functions are... 

As indicated above, neither the SCF nor the DFT method is able to treat the Van der Waals interaction. This is well established for the SCF approximation [14, 15]. The Van der Waals interaction is a typical correlation effect therefore, its description requires the use of a correlated method . In wave function based ab initio methods correlation effects are described by adding singly, doubly and higher excited configurations to the SCF or to a multi-configuration SCF (MC-SCF or complete active space SCF, CASSCF) wave function. This can be done by means of perturbation theory (PT),by configuration interaction (Cl)... 

This is perhaps the easiest method to understand. It is based on the variational principle (Appendix B), analogous to the HF method. The trial wave function is written as a linear combination of determinants with the expansion coefficients determined by requiring that the energy should be a minimum (or at least stationary), a procedure known as Configuration Interaction (Cl). The MOs used for building the excited Slater determinants are taken from a Hartree-Fock calculation and held fixed. Subscripts S, D, T etc. indicate determinants which are singly, doubly, triply etc. excited relative to the... 

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