Application of Wigner and Husimi intracule based electron correlation models to excited states

Abstract

A new approach to the electron correlation problem based on phase space intracules derived from the Wigner distribution is applied to excited states. The computed electron correlation energy reduces the mean absolute error in the prediction of the excitation energies of 55 atomic excited states from 0.65 eV for unrestricted Hartree-Fock to 0.32 eV. This compares favorably to a mean absolute deviation of 0.52 eV for second order Moller-Plesset perturbation theory and 0.35 eV for the Lee-Yang-Parr functional. An analogous correlation model based on the Husimi distribution is developed. Predicted correlation energies and excitation energies from this model are significantly worse than for the Wigner intracule based model. Alternative correlation kernels may be more suitable for the Husimi intracule based approach.