Response calculations with an independent particle system with an exact one-particle density matrix

We use the natural orbitals to define an independent particle system, from which the exact one-particle density matrix can be obtained with an ensemble of degenerate determinantal ground states. Also defining explicit phases for the orbitals, and admitting functionals that are dependent on those phases, time-dependent equations for the orbitals and occupation numbers are obtained from an action principle. The wrong polarizability and lack of double excitations of straightforward adiabatic time-dependent density matrix functional theory are then corrected, and the important symmetry χ(ω)=χ{*}(-ω), lost in previous ad hoc improvements, is restored. The extension of the response calculations beyond the occupied-virtual pairs, which are the only ones admitted in time-dependent density functional theory, leads to greatly improved response properties.