CONCERNING THE SYMMETRY PROPERTIES OF THE REDUCED DENSITY MATRIX AND THE NATURAL SPIN ORBITALS AND SPIN GEMINALS (THE NATURAL ONE- AND TWO-ELECTRON FUNCTIONS)
The density operator (density matrix) of a quantum mechenical system can be decomposed into operators which transform as irreducible representations of the symmetry group in coordinate and spin space. Each of these components has a physical meaning connected with the expectation values of certain operators. The reduced density matrices can be decomposed in a completely analogous way. The symmetry properties of the total wave function give rise to degeneracies of the eigenvalues of the reduced density matrices. These degeneracies can be removed by requiring that the natural spin orbitals (NSO, defined as the eigenfunctions of the first-order density matrix), as well as the natural spin geminals (NSG, the eigenfunctions of the second-order density matrix) and their spinless counterparts transform as irreducible representations of the symmetry group and are eigenfunctions of S/sup 2/ and S/sub z/. In many cases this requirement is compatible with the original definition of the NSO, the NSG, etc., e.g., when there is no spatial degeneracy of the total wave function and when the Z- component of the total spin vanishes. When these conditions are not fulfilled an alternative definition of the NSO and the NSG is proposed. (auth)
The density operator (density matrix) of a quantum mechenical system can be decomposed into operators which transform as irreducible representations of the symmetry group in coordinate and spin space. Each of these components has a physical meaning connected with the expectation values of certain operators. The reduced density matrices can be decomposed in a completely analogous way. The symmetry properties of the total wave function give rise to degeneracies of the eigenvalues of the reduced density matrices. These degeneracies can be removed by requiring that the natural spin orbitals (NSO, defined as the eigenfunctions of the first-order density matrix), as well as the natural spin geminals (NSG, the eigenfunctions of the second-order density matrix) and their spinless counterparts transform as irreducible representations of the symmetry group and are eigenfunctions of S/sup 2/ and S/sub z/. In many cases this requirement is compatible with the original definition of the NSO, the NSG, etc., e.g., when there is no spatial degeneracy of the total wave function and when the Z- component of the total spin vanishes. When these conditions are not fulfilled an alternative definition of the NSO and the NSG is proposed. (auth)
A division of the 2-matrix Γ, for a system of N identical fermions, into 2 parts is proposed in such a way that Γ has the same 1-matrix γ as does Γ and Γ has a vanishing 1-matrix (and therefore vanishing trace). This is accomplished by evaluating the natural spin orbital (NSO) occupation numbers Γ of Γ from (where the ni are NSO occupation numbers of γ); and letting γ0 have the same NSO's as does γ. The physical interpretation of Γ should be easier with this decomposition, since Γ is completely determined by γ and has a Hartree-Fock-like form, while Γ corrects the pair density of Γ without disturbing its 1-density.
The proof of Smith, which gives the solution to the N-representability problem of the first-order density matrix for the case of N even and a nondegenerate energy eigenstate, is also shown to be valid for certain linear combinations of degenerate states. A connection is shown between these proper linear combinations and the eigenfuctions of a perturbed Hamiltonian for which all of the degeneracies have been lifted. For the case of S=0, all the eigenfunctions of the pth-order density matrix (natural p functions) can be taken to be eigenfunctions of total spin (Σ lim i=1pSi)2,and if orbital angular momentum is a constant of the motion, these natural p functions are eigenfunctions of the total orbital angular momentum for L=0. Simple wavefunctions are presented for which the natural 2 functions are not all eigenfunctions of the total pair spin. It is then shown that for MS=0 (any integral spin) or for L=1, ML=0, the natural 2 functions are eigenfunctions of (S1+S2)2 and (L1+L2)2, respectively.
Abstract The spin-independent properties of an electronic system are completely determined by spinless density functions, P1(1; 1') and P 2( 1,2; 1',2 '), derived from the 1-and 2-electron density matrices, p1(1; 1') and p2(1,2 ; 1',2'). These functions, and their physical inter-pretation, have been dealt with in part I: the present paper contains the generalizations necessary when the Hamiltonian contains spin terms (as in discussions of electron and nuclear spin resonance). The density matrices, and more generally the transition density matrices p1(kλ|1; 1') and p2(kλ|l,2; 1',2') associated with states and Φkand Φλ are resolved into spinless components associated with different spin situations: p1 has four such components (one giving the density of a-spin electrons, a second the density of β-spin electrons, and two with less direct physical significance), while p2 has sixteen components. It is shown that all components, for states k=(S, M),λ= (S',M') of given S, S', are determined by three 2-electron functions.For k=λ these reduce to p2, the spinless pair function, from which the electron density p1 may be derived by integration; Q2a ‘conditional' spin density, from which the (1-electron) spin density Q1 may be derived (as in the case of p1 and P2); Q c. a., a ‘coupling anisotropy function', which describes the anisotropy of spin-spin coupling associated with quantization of the spin z-component. It is also useful to introduce (though it is not an independent function). Qc, a ‘coupling density function', which measures the coupling between the spins of two electrons at different points in space. All spin-dependent effects, including the usual spin-spin and spin-orbit couplings and also (indirect) nuclear and electron-nuclear spin-spin couplings, may be related to the many- electron wave function through the above density functions. All the densities have a physical interpretation, independent of the precise nature of the wave functions (which may, for example, be the exact eigenfunctions of a spinless Hamiltonian or merely approximations of orbital form). The derivation of the density functions from approximate wave functions is considered in some detail. For functions describing weakly coupled electron groups (e. g. inner-shell and valence electrons) the densities may be expressed in terms of those of the separate groups. This reduction may be followed by an orbital description of each group; and subsequently, by a linear-combination-of-atomic-orbitals (l. c. a. o.) approximation. In the simpler approximations, all the coupling effects discussed are determined by electron and spin ‘populations'. Preliminary calculations suggest that such approximations may in many cases be adequate.
In order to calculate the average value of a physical quantity containing also many-particle interactions in a system of N antisymmetric particles, a set of generalized density matrices are defined. In order to permit the investigation of the same physical situation in two complementary spaces, the Hermitean density matrix of order k has two sets of indices of each k variables, and it is further antisymmetric in each set of these indices.Every normalizable antisymmetric wave function may be expanded in a series of determinants of order N over all ordered configurations formed from a basic complete set of one-particle functions ${\ensuremath{\psi}}_{k}$, which gives a representation of the wave function and its density matrices also in the discrete k-space. The coefficients in an expansion of an eigenfunction to a particular operator may be determined by the variation principle, leading to the ordinary secular equation of the method of configurational interaction. It is shown that the first-order density matrix may be brought to diagonal form, which defines the "natural spin-orbitals" associated with the system. The situation is then partly characterized by the corresponding occupation numbers, which are shown to lie between 0 and 1 and to assume the value 1, only if the corresponding spin-orbital occurs in all configurations necessary for describing the situation. If the system has exactly N spin-orbitals which are fully occupied, the total wave function may be reduced to a single Slater determinant. However, due to the mutual interaction between the particles, this limiting case is never physically realized, but the introduction of natural spin-orbitals leads then instead to a configurational expansion of most rapid convergence.In case the basic set is of finite order M, the best choice of this set is determined by a form of extended Hartree-Fock equations. It is shown that, in this case, the natural spin-orbitals approximately fulfill some equations previously proposed by Slater.
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 p particles for each value of p. 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 N-representability problem is given, and two sufficient conditions and one necessary condition for N representability are given in terms of distances and norms.
A systematic procedure is described for calculating the reduced density matrices of first and second order for a resonating valence bond wavefunction on square planar nets with Born-von Karman boundary conditions of finite period. The density matrices explicitly display the electron correlation in such a wavefunction, which is a model ground state for a two-dimensional Mott insulator. Because of the extremely large number of contributing valence bond structures, it is essential to utilize their symmetry under the space group for minimum computation. For the totally symmetric singlet state described, density matrix eigenvectors form basis vectors for irreducible representations. The irreducible representations spanned by pair states on the square plane lattice are listed, and a set of irreducible basis vectors for the two-particle density matrix is defined which clearly displays the nature of electron pair correlations in such a system (correlated geminals). The apparatus has been employed in a calculation described in the paper accompanying this one (succeeding article).