Self-interaction in Green's-function theory of the hydrogen atom

W. Nelson, P. Bokes, Patrick Rinke, R. W. Godby

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Abstract

Atomic hydrogen provides a unique test case for computational electronic structure methods, since its electronic excitation energies are known analytically. With only one electron, hydrogen contains no electronic correlation and is therefore particularly susceptible to spurious self-interaction errors introduced by certain computational methods. In this paper we focus on many-body perturbation-theory (MBPT) in Hedin's GW approximation. While the Hartree-Fock and the exact MBPT self-energy are free of self-interaction, the correlation part of the GW self-energy does not have this property. Here we use atomic hydrogen as a benchmark system for GW and show that the self-interaction part of the GW self-energy, while non-zero, is small. The effect of calculating the GW self-energy from exact wavefunctions and eigenvalues, as distinct from those from the local-density approximation, is also illuminating.
Original languageEnglish
Article number032505
Pages (from-to)-
Number of pages4
JournalPhysical Review A
Volume75
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2007

Bibliographical note

© 2007 American Physical Society. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Physical Review A. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self archiving policy.

Keywords

  • ELECTRON-GAS
  • GW CALCULATIONS

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