Convergence of the Rayleigh—Ritz method in self-consistent-field and multiconfiguration self-consistent-field calculations

We investigate the analytical convergence of SCF and MCSCF calculations, when the dimension of the subspaces to which the orbitals are restricted tends to infinity. We show that the completeness only inL²(R³;C²) of the orbital bases does not ensure the convergence of the Ritz-energy, neither in SCF nor in MCSCF calculations, but that this convergence — as well as the convergence of the Ritz-orbitals in SCF calculations — is on the contrary guaranteed if the orbital bases are complete in the Sobolev spaceW^1,2(R³;C²). Some consequences on the choice of the orbital exponents of Slater and Gauss functions are also discussed.