Comments on Bottcher's talk

A project has been initiated to study relativistically the electronic structure of molecules using finite basis set variational methods of the type pioneered in atoms by Yong-Ki Kim and Kagawa. Attempts to carry out similar calculations for molecules have had mixed results, the most common problem being gross overestimation of the relativistic energy correction (often termed, inaccurately, variational collapse) and the appearance of spurious, unphysical energy levels in the computed spectrum, making physical interpretation a matter of guesswork. Kutzelnigg lists a large number of attempts to overcome these problems