Bilinear Constraints upon the Correlation Contribution to the Electron-Electron Repulsion Energy as a Functional of...

Perturbative analysis of the functional U[, ψ] that yields the correlation component U of the electron-electron repulsion energy in terms of the vectors ψ(1) and of the natural spinorbitals and their occupation numbers (the 1-matrix functional) facilitates examination of the flaws inherent to the present implementations of the density matrix functional theory. Recognizing that the practical usefulness of any approximate 1-matrix functional hinges upon its capability of exactly reproducing the leading contribution to U at the limit of vanishing electron-electron interactions gives rise to asymptotic bilinear constraints for the (exact or model) 2-cumulant $$ that enters the expression for U. The asymptotic behavior of certain blocks of $$ is found to be equally important. These identities, which are obtained for both the single-determinantal and a model multideterminantal cases, take precedence over the linear constraints commonly enforced in the course of approximate construction of such functionals. This observation reveals the futility of designing sophisticated approximations tailored for the second-order contribution to $$ while neglecting proper formulation of the respective first-order contribution that in the case of the so-called JKL-only functionals requires abandoning the JK-dependence altogether. It has its repercussions not only for the functionals of the PNOF family but also for the expressions involving only the L-type two-electron repulsion integrals (in the guise of their exchange counterparts) that account only for the correlation effects due to electrons with antiparallel spins and are well-defined only for spin-unpolarized and high-spin systems (yielding vanishing U for the latter).