Linearized Jastrow-style fluctuations on spin-projected Hartree-Fock

Abstract

The accurate and efficient description of strong electronic correlations remains an important objective in electronic structure theory. Projected Hartree-Fock theory, where symmetries of the Hamiltonian are deliberately broken and projectively restored, all with a mean-field computational scaling, shows considerable promise in this regard. However, the method is neither size extensive nor size consistent; in other words, the correlation energy per particle beyond broken-symmetry mean field vanishes in the thermodynamic limit, and the dissociation limit of a molecule is not the sum of the fragment energies. These two problems are closely related. Recently, Neuscamman [Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 203001 (2012)] has proposed a method to cure the lack of size consistency in the context of the antisymmetrized geminal power wave function (equivalent to number-projected Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov) by using a Jastrow-type correlator in Hilbert space. Here, we apply the basic idea in the context of projected Hartree-Fock theory, linearizing the correlator for computational simplicity but extending it to include spin fluctuations. Results are presented for the Hubbard Hamiltonian and for some simple molecular systems.