Many-Electron Densities and Reduced Density Matrices

Reduced density matrices, upon their initial introduction, promised great simplifications of quantum-chemical approaches. Although they did not immediately meet the high expectations held of them, recent work has placed them at the center of new electron correlation functions. This text presents the developments that are giving new importance to reduced density matrices. The volume stresses not only their applications, but also the relevance of many-electron densities. Leading experts in the field have put together a book which covers topics ranging from fundamental theorems describing mathematical structures of many-electron densities and reduced density matrices, to new electronic structure methods that open an avenue to highly accurate atomic and molecular simulations. The book should be of interest to quantum and theoretical chemists, solid state theorists, chemical physicists and physical chemists, and finally mathematical, statistical, and computational chemists. In addition to being a valuable resource for researchers, the book should be suitable as a textbook in special topic courses at the advanced graduate level.