How many‐body perturbation theory (MBPT) has changed quantum chemistry

AbstractThe history of many‐body perturbation theory (MBPT) and its impact on Quantum Chemistry is reviewed, starting with Brueckner's conjecture of a linked‐cluster expansion and the time‐dependent derivation by Goldstone of such an expansion. A central part of this article is the time‐independent formulation of quantum chemistry in Fock space and its diagrammatic representation including the particle‐hole picture and the inversion of a commutator. The results of the time‐independent derivation of MBPT are compared with those of Goldstone. It is analyzed which ingredients of Goldstone's approach are decisive. The connected diagram theorem is derived both in a constructive way based on a Lie‐algebraic formulation and a nonconstructive way making use of the separation theorem. It is discussed why the Goldstone derivation starting from a unitary time‐evolution operator, ends up with a wave operator in intermediate normalization. The Møller–Plesset perturbation expansions of Bartlett and Pople are compared. Examples of complete summations of certain classes of diagrams are discussed, for example, that which leads to the Bethe‐Goldstone expansion. MBPT for energy differences is analyze