Wave function four-component

Section VI shows the power of the modulus-phase formalism and is included in this chapter partly for methodological purposes. In this formalism, the equations of continuity and the Hamilton-Jacobi equations can be naturally derived in both the nonrelativistic and the relativistic (Dirac) theories of the electron. It is shown that in the four-component (spinor) theory of electrons, the two exha components in the spinor wave function will have only a minor effect on the topological phase, provided certain conditions are met (nearly nonrelativistic velocities and external fields that are not excessively large). 

At the present time, the solution of the electronic structure problem using full four component wave functions is far from routine [38]. In the future, as progress is made in this area, extension of the present approach to full four component wave functions can be expected. 

Since working with the full four-component wave function is so demanding, different approximate methods have been developed where the small component of the wave function is eliminated to a certain order in 1/c or approximated (like the Foldy-Wouthuyserd or Douglas-Kroll transformations thereby reducing the four-component wave function to only two components. A description of such methods is outside the scope of this book. 

Fourier transform, molecular systems, component amplitude analysis cyclic wave functions, 224-228 reciprocal relations, 216-217 Four-state system loop construction ... 

It can be shown that the minimum dimensions for the various matrices required to satisfy all conditions are 4x4 and hence the wave function has at least four components. A representation of the matrices found useful is... 

Since the wave function may be interpreted as a column vector with four components, may be defined to be a row matrix with components and which satisfies the adjoint equation... 

In line with the definition of the Bi, the four-component wave function is written in the form of two two-dimensional objects... 

Since 72 = 1, the operator has two eigenvalues, 1. In summary, the photon state may be uniquely specified by giving four quantum numbers to quantify the energy u>, the angular momentum j, the component of angular momentum M and the parity A. The normalized wave function is of the form... 

Heavy atoms exhibit large relativistic effects, often too large to be treated perturba-tively. The Schrodinger equation must be supplanted by an appropriate relativistic wave equation such as Dirac-Coulomb or Dirac-Coulomb-Breit. Approximate one-electron solutions to these equations may be obtained by the self-consistent-field procedure. The resulting Dirac-Fock or Dirac-Fock-Breit functions are conceptually similar to the familiar Hartree-Fock functions the Hartree-Fock orbitals are replaced, however, by four-component spinors. Correlation is no less important in the relativistic regime than it is for the lighter elements, and may be included in a similar manner. 

The inclusion of relativistic effects is essential in quantum chemical studies of molecules containing heavy elements. A full relativistic calculation, i.e. based upon Quantum Electro Dynamics, is only feasible for the smallest systems. In the SCF approximation it involves the solution of the Dirac Fock equation. Due to the four component complex wave functions and the large number of basis functions needed to describe the small component Dirac spinors, these computations are much more demanding than the corresponding non-relativistic ones. This limits Dirac Fock calculations, which can be performed using e.g. the MOLFDIR package [1], to small molecular systems, UFe being a typical example, see e.g. [2]. 

Numerous earlier studies of the ec GG methods clearly indicate that the modest size MR GISD wave functions represent the most suitable and easily available source of higher-than-pair clusters for this purpose (see Ref. [21] for an overview). Indeed, these wave functions can be easily transformed to a SR form, whose cluster analysis is straightforward. Moreover, the resulting three- and four-body amplitudes represent only a very small subset of all such amplitudes, namely those which are most important, and which at the same time implicitly account for all higher-order cluster components that are present in the MR GISD wave functions. 

The most straightforward method for electronic structure calculation of heavy-atom molecules is solution of the eigenvalue problem using the Dirac-Coulomb (DC) or Dirac-Coulomb-Breit (DCB) Hamiltonians [4f, 42, 43] when some approximation for the four-component wave function is chosen. 

The two-step method consists of a two-component molecular RECP calculation at the first step, followed by restoration of the proper four-component wave function in atomic cores at the second step. Though the method was developed originally for studying core properties in heavy-atom molecules, it can be efficiently applied to studying the properties described by the operators heavily concentrated in cores or on nuclei of light atoms in other computationally difficult cases, e.g., in many-atom molecules and solids. The details of these steps are described below. 

In the inner core region, the pseudospinors are smoothed, so that the electronic density with the pseudo-wave function is not correct. When operators describing properties of interest are heavily concentrated near or on nuclei, their mean values are strongly affected by the wave function in the inner region. The four-component molecular spinors must, therefore, be restored in the heavy-atom cores. 

Finally, the eight-component wave function ip p, En) (four ordinary electron spinor indices, and two extra indices corresponding to the two-component... 

According to the Dirac [36] electron theory, the relativistic wavefunction has four components in spin-space. With the Hermitian adjoint wave function , the quantum mechanical forms of the charge and current densities become [31,40]... 

Relativistic quantum chemistry is currently an active area of research (see, for example, the review volume edited by Wilson [102]), although most of the work is beyond the scope of this course. Much of the effort is based on Dirac s relativistic formulation of the Schrodinger equation this results in wave functions that have four components rather than the single component we conventionally think of. As a consequence the mathematical and computational complications are substantial. Nevertheless, it is very useful to have programs for Dirac-Fock (the relativistic analogue of Hartree-Fock) calculations available, as they can provide calibration comparisons for more approximate treatments. We have developed such a program and used it for this purpose [103]. 

Relativity becomes important for elements heavier than the first row transition elements. Most methods applicable on molecules are derived from the Dirac equation. The Dirac equation itself is difficult to use, since it involves a description of the wave function as a four component spinor. The Dirac equation can be approximately brought to a two-component form using e.g. the Foldy-Wouthuysen (FW) transformational,12]. Unfortunately the FW transformation, as originally proposed, is both quite complicated and also divergent in the expansion in the momentum (for large momenta), and it can thus only be carried out approximately (usually to low orders). The resulting equations are not variationally stable, and they are used only in first order perturbation theory. 

Thus, the non-relativistic wave function (1.14) of an electron is a two-component spinor (tensor having half-integer rank) whereas its relativistic counterpart is already, due to the presence of large (/) and small (g) components, a four-component spinor. The choice of / in the form (1 + l — l ) is conditioned by the requirement of a standard phase system for the wave functions (see Introduction, Eq. (4)). 

Let us consider the non-relativistic limit of the relativistic operators describing radiation. Expressing the small components of the four-component wave functions (bispinors) in terms of the large ones and expanding the spherical Bessel functions in a power series in cor/c, we obtain, in the non-relativistic limit, the following two alternative expressions for the probability of electric multipole radiation ... 

The energy spectrum of atoms and ions with j j coupling can be found using the relativistic Hamiltonian of iV-electron atoms (2.1)-(2.7). Its irreducible tensorial form is presented in Chapter 19. The relativistic one-electron wave functions are four-component spinors (2.15). They are the eigenfunctions of the total angular momentum operator for the electron and are used to determine one-electron and two-electron matrix elements of relativistic interaction operators. These matrix elements, in the representation of occupation numbers, are the parameters that enter into the expansions of the operators corresponding to physical quantities (see general expressions (13.22) and (13.23)). 

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