A self-energy-functional approach is applied to construct cluster
approximations for correlated lattice models. It turns out that the
cluster-perturbation theory (Senechal et al, PRL 84, 522 (2000)) and the
cellular dynamical mean-field theory (Kotliar et al, PRL 87, 186401 (2001)) are
limiting cases of a more general cluster method. Results for the
one-dimensional Hubbard model are discussed with regard to boundary conditions,
bath degrees of freedom and cluster size.Comment: 4 pages, final version with minor change
