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Molecular Physics

Some necessary conditions for N-representability

D.E. Parry

Published Jun 20, 1986• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

It is shown how the conditions for the N-representability of a first order reduced density matrix can be employed in deriving necessary conditions for the N-representability of higher order reduced density matrices. Some conditions are obtained, which use the eigenvalues of both the first order and the second order reduced density matrices, that are necessary for the N-representability of the latter.

DOI
10.1080/00268978600101411

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It is shown how the conditions for the N-representability of a first order reduced density matrix can be employed in deriving necessary conditions for the N-representability of higher order reduced density matrices. Some conditions are obtained, which use the eigenvalues of both the first order and the second order reduced density matrices, that are necessary for the N-representability of the latter.
Usually, variational calculations for the second-order reduced density matrix are performed subject to the constraint that the ``PPP'' and ``QQQ'' matrices are positive semidefinite, which only constrains the lowest eigenvalue of these matrices. We characterize the highest eigenvalue of these matrices and discuss how the associated constraint (which is related to the ground-state energy of the Hamiltonians $H=\ensuremath{-}P$ and $H=\ensuremath{-}Q$) can be implemented in practical calculations. This necessary condition for NNN-representability should help ensure that the second-order reduced density matrix is not ``overcorrelated.''
Properties and NNN-representability conditions of the two-body density matrix
A summary is presented of the properties of the coefficient matrices formed by expanding the two-body reduced density matrix in a complete set of two-electron wave functions. Calculating the relationship between the many electron wave function and these so-called two-body density matrices enables the derivation of necessary NNN-representability conditions that ensure a given matrix obeys the postulates of many-body quantum mechanics.
The latest results of density matrix theory are summarized in terms of analysis of off-diagonal components. For a given reduced density matrix (RDM) of arbitrary order, the full density matrix is explicitly constructed, from which the RDM is derived by means of the corresponding reduction procedure. Both the matrices satisfy all the necessary conditions, such antisymmetry, normalization, hermiticity, except that the non-negative definiteness of the full DM is not guaranteed. If an RDM satisfies the necessary inequalities with the same number of indices as it has itself, then, as proved here, there is an additive correction to the full DM matrix that turns it into a non-negative definite matrix leading to the same RDM and satisfying the other requirements. This establishes a fundamental fact that these inequalities are sufficient as well, providing the N-representability of the given RDM. The construction is based on the classification, introduced in the article, of the multi-index elements of the RDM and full DM according to their degree of off-diagonality. RDM elements with a predetermined degree of off-diagonality are expressed through full DM elements with the same off-diagonality. This shows that the conventional variational approach to calculating the energy of the system by convex programming methods under the conditions of N-representability (before and even after reaching the minimum energy) generally does not lead to constructing a mixed quantum state composed of solutions to the Schrödinger equation. Therefore, except for the energy, it does not guarantee a correct description of the other properties so long as the conditions of correctness for each particular property are not expressed in terms of the RDM and not incorporated into the specific conditions of N-representability (regardless of the requirement of energy minimization).
In this work, we analyze the effectiveness of different sets of well-known necessary N-representability conditions that are imposed on the variational determination of two-electron reduced density matrices corresponding to the ground and excited states of N-electron Hamiltonians within doubly occupied configuration interaction subspaces. The two-electron reduced density matrix elements are determined so that they are suitably related to those of higher-order reduced density matrices and other associated matrices, up to a given order, constituting positive semidefinite matrices. These conditions up to two-, three-, and four-order have been sequentially imposed on the variational calculation of the expectation values of the dispersion operator corresponding to several Hamiltonian models, obtaining the electronic spectra. These results have been contrasted with those arising from the full configuration interaction method, illuminating the sufficiency/insufficiency of the variational N-representability conditions applied.
The reduction of density matrices defined with respect to a finite basis set is considered. A basis set can be introduced into the vector space of Hermitian matrices acting on functions of the coordinates of ppp particles for each value of ppp. An analogy with the construction of spin eigenfunctions is used to obtain a particular basis set called the reducing basis. Reduction of one of these basis elements is either one to one or maps into the origin. Any element in the preimage of a density matrix can thus be resolved into two components, one uniquely determined by the density matrix and the other arbitrary within a certin subset. A restatement of the NNN-representability problem is given, and two sufficient conditions and one necessary condition for NNN representability are given in terms of distances and norms.