The electronic-structure theory of solids is presently dominated by density-functional methods which avoid calculations of the many-body wavefunction, and instead compute directly properties of the ground state. We argue that methods which determine the many-electron wavefunctions should receive particular attention in the future. A survey is given of our present knowledge of how to calculate these wavefunctions for a solid. The accuracy we envisage compares with the one obtainable for small molecules when applying quantum-chemical methods. [References: 123]
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