Are natural orbitals useful for generating an efficient expansion of the wave function?

We investigate whether the natural orbitals (NOs) minimize â̂¥Ψ-Φâ̂

One-body reduced density-matrix functional theory in finite basis sets at elevated temperatures

In this review we provide a rigorous and self-contained presentation of one-body reduced density-matrix (1RDM) functional theory. We do so for the case of a finite basis set, where density-functional theory (DFT) implicitly becomes a 1RDM functional theory. To avoid non-uniqueness issues we consider the case of fermionic and bosonic systems at elevated temperature and variable particle number, i.e, a grand-canonical ensemble. For the fermionic case the Fock space is finite-dimensional due to the Pauli principle and we can provide a rigorous 1RDM functional theory relatively straightforwardly. For the bosonic case, where arbitrarily many particles can occupy a single state, the Fock space is infinite-dimensional and mathematical subtleties (not every hermitian Hamiltonian is self-adjoint, expectation values can become infinite, and not every self-adjoint Hamiltonian has a Gibbs state) make it necessary to impose restrictions on the allowed Hamiltonians and external non-local potentials. For simple conditions on the interaction of the bosons a rigorous 1RDM functional theory can be established, where we exploit the fact that due to the finite one-particle space all 1RDMs are finite-dimensional. We also discuss the problems arising from 1RDM functional theory as well as DFT formulated for an infinite-dimensional one-particle space.Comment: 55 pages, 7 figure

Compact two-electron wave function for bond dissociation and Van der Waals interactions: A natural amplitude assessment

Electron correlations in molecules can be divided in short range dynamical correlations, long range Van der Waals type interactions and near degeneracy static correlations. In this work we analyze for a one-dimensional model of a two-electron system how these three types of correlations can be incorporated in a simple wave function of restricted functional form consisting of an orbital product multiplied by a single correlation function $f(r_{12})$ depending on the interelectronic distance $r_{12}$. Since the three types of correlations mentioned lead to different signatures in terms of the natural orbital (NO) amplitudes in two-electron systems we make an analysis of the wave function in terms of the NO amplitudes for a model system of a diatomic molecule. In our numerical implementation we fully optimize the orbitals and the correlation function on a spatial grid without restrictions on their functional form. Due to this particular form of the wave function, we can prove that none of the amplitudes vanishes and moreover that it displays a distinct sign pattern and a series of avoided crossings as a function of the bond distance in agreement with the exact solution. This shows that the wave function Ansatz correctly incorporates the long range Van der Waals interactions. We further show that the approximate wave function gives an excellent binding curve and is able to describe static correlations. We show that in order to do this the correlation function $f(r_{12})$ needs to diverge for large $r_{12}$ at large internuclear distances while for shorter bond distances it increases as a function of $r_{12}$ to a maximum value after which it decays exponentially. We further give a physical interpretation of this behavior.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figure

Functional Derivative of the Zero Point Energy Functional from the Strong Interaction Limit of Density Functional Theory

We derive an explicit expression for the functional derivative of the subleading term in the strong interaction limit expansion of the generalized Levy--Lieb functional for the special case of two electrons in one dimension. The expression is derived from the zero point energy (ZPE) functional, which is valid if the quantum state reduces to strongly correlated electrons in the strong coupling limit. The explicit expression is confirmed numerically and respects the relevant sum-rule. We also show that the ZPE potential is able to generate a bond mid-point peak for homo-nuclear dissociation and is properly of purely kinetic origin. Unfortunately, the ZPE diverges for Coulomb systems, whereas the exact peaks should be finite.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figure

Response calculations based on an independent particle system with the exact one-particle density matrix: polarizabilities

Recently, we have demonstrated that the problems finding a suitable adiabatic approximation in time-dependent one-body reduced density matrix functional theory can be remedied by introducing an additional degree of freedom to describe the system: the phase of the natural orbitals [Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 013002 (2010), J. Chem. Phys. 133, 174119 (2010)]. In this article we will show in detail how the frequency-dependent response equations give the proper static limit ($\omega\to0$), including the perturbation in the chemical potential, which is required in static response theory to ensure the correct number of particles. Additionally we show results for the polarizability for H$_2$ and compare the performance of two different two-electron functionals: the phase-including L\"owdin-Shull functional and the density matrix form of the L\"owdin-Shull functional.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure

Implications of the unitary invariance and symmetry restrictions on the development of proper approximate one-body reduced density matrix functionals

In many of the approximate functionals in one-body reduced density matrix (1RDM) functional theory, the approximate two-body reduced density matrix (2RDM) in the natural orbital representation only depends on the natural occupation numbers. In Phys. Rev. A 92, 012520 (2015) Wang and Knowles initialised a discussion of to what extent this simplification is valid, by introducing two different H$_4$ geometries with identical natural occupation numbers, but different 2RDMs. Gritsenko has argued that this feature is due symmetry [Phys. Rev. A 97, 026501 (2018)]. This work aims to contribute to the discussion on the following points: 1) one should rather speak of symmetry-restricted variants of the universal functional, than saying that the universal functional is symmetry dependent; 2) the unitary invariance of degenerate NOs can lead to large deviations in the 2RDM elements, especially the phase of the NOs; 3) symmetry-restricted functionals are constructed for the H$_4$ geometries considered by Wang and Knowles, whose structure could serve as guide in the construction of approximate 1RDM functionals.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures, 3 table

Charge transfer, double and bond-breaking excitations with time-dependent density matrix functional theory

Time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) in its current adiabatic implementations exhibits three remarkable failures: (a) completely wrong behavior of the excited state surface along a bond-breaking coordinate; (b) lack of doubly excited configurations; (c) much too low charge transfer excitation energies. These TDDFT failure cases are all strikingly exhibited by prototype two-electron systems such as dissociating H2 and HeH+. We find for these systems with time-dependent density matrix functional theory that: (a) Within previously formulated simple adiabatic approximations, the bonding-to- antibonding excited state surface as well as charge transfer excitations are described without problems, but not the double excitations; (b) An adiabatic approximation is formulated in which also the double excitations are fully accounted for. © 2008 The American Physical Society

Exchange-correlation functionals from the strongly-interacting limit of DFT: Applications to model chemical systems

We study model one-dimensional chemical systems (representative of their three-dimensional counterparts) using the strictly-correlated electrons (SCE) functional, which, by construction, becomes asymptotically exact in the limit of infinite coupling strength. The SCE functional has a highly non-local dependence on the density and is able to capture strong correlation within Kohn- Sham theory without introducing any symmetry breaking. Chemical systems, however, are not close enough to the strong-interaction limit so that, while ionization energies and the stretched H2 molecule are accurately described, total energies are in general way too low. A correction based on the exact next leading order in the expansion at infinite coupling strength of the Hohenberg-Kohn functional largely improves the results.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures. Submitted to PCCP's Themed Collection on Density Functional Theory and its Application