How to spoil a good basis set for Rayleigh-Ritz calculations

Abstract

For model quantum mechanical systems such as the harmonic oscillator and a particle in an impenetrable box, we consider the set of exact discrete spectrum functions and define the modified basis set by subtraction of the ground state wavefunction from all the other wavefunctions with some real weights. It is demonstrated that the modified set of functions is complete in the space of square integrable functions if and only if the series of the squared weights diverges. A similar, but nonequivalent criterion is derived for convergence of Rayleigh-Ritz ground state energy calculations to the exact ground state energy value with the basis set extension. Some numerical illustrations are provided which demonstrate a wide variety of possible situations for model systems.