Global-in-time existence of solutions to the multiconfiguration time-dependent Hartree-Fock equations: A sufficient condition

The multiconfiguration time-dependent Hartree-Fock (MCTDHF for short) system is an approximation of the linear many-particle Schrodinger equation with a binary interaction potential by nonlinear one-particle equations. MCTDHF methods are widely used for numerical calculations of the dynamics of few-electron systems in quantum physics and quantum chemistry, but the time-dependent case still poses serious open problems for the analysis, e.g. in the sense that global-in-time existence of solutions is not proved yet. In this letter we present the first result ever where global existence is proved under a condition on the initial datum that it has to be somewhat close to the ground state. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.