Multi-configurational explicitly correlated wave functions for the study of confined many electron atoms

Explicitly correlated wave functions to study confined atoms under impenetrable spherical walls have been obtained. Configuration mixing and a correlation factor are included in the variational ansatz. The behaviors of the ground state and some low-lying excited states of He, Be, B and C atoms with the confinement size are analyzed. Level crossing with confinement is found for some cases. This effect is analyzed in terms of the single particle energy of the occupied orbitals. The multi-configuration parameterized optimized effective potential method is employed with a cut-off factor to account for Dirichlet boundary conditions. The variational Monte Carlo method is used to deal with explicitly correlated wave functions. (paper)