Linear Variation Theory: Building a Better Wavefunction Piece by Piece

Linear combinations of functions are a good way to build wavefunctions. The goal is to have "off the shelf" sets of functions that we can use to build wavefunctions for molecules. We show how linear variation theory can be used to find the variational energy of the ground AND excited states and how to find the coefficients for the linear expansion of the wavefunction.

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MP3 podcast
screencast

Mathematica notebook for lecture demonstration
worksheet
Mathematica notebook with solution to worksheet