Ground state of two electrons on a sphere

Abstract

We have performed a comprehensive study of the singlet ground state of two electrons on the surface of a sphere of radius R. We have used electronic structure models ranging from restricted and unrestricted Hartree-Fock theories to explicitly correlated treatments, the last of which leads to near-exact wave functions and energies for any value of R. Møller-Plesset energy corrections (up to fifth-order) are also considered, as well as the asymptotic solution in the large- R regime.