Top Curr Chem (2014)

DOI: 10.1007/128_2013_460
# Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

Quasiparticle Self-Consistent GW Method

for the Spectral Properties of Complex
Materials

Fabien Bruneval and Matteo Gatti

Abstract The GW approximation to the formally exact many-body perturbation

theory has been applied successfully to materials for several decades. Since the
practical calculations are extremely cumbersome, the GW self-energy is most
commonly evaluated using a first-order perturbative approach: This is the
so-called G0W0 scheme. However, the G0W0 approximation depends heavily on
the mean-field theory that is employed as a basis for the perturbation theory.
Recently, a procedure to reach a kind of self-consistency within the GW framework
has been proposed. The quasiparticle self-consistent GW (QSGW) approximation
retains some positive aspects of a self-consistent approach, but circumvents the
intricacies of the complete GW theory, which is inconveniently based on a
non-Hermitian and dynamical self-energy. This new scheme allows one to sur-
mount most of the flaws of the usual G0W0 at a moderate calculation cost and at a
reasonable implementation burden. In particular, the issues of small band gap
semiconductors, of large band gap insulators, and of some transition metal oxides
are then cured. The QSGW method broadens the range of materials for which the
spectral properties can be predicted with confidence.

Keywords Electronic structure
Ab initio calculations
Many-body perturbation

theory
GW approximation

F. Bruneval
CEA, DEN, Service de Recherches de Métallurgie Physique, 91191, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
e-mail: fabien.bruneval@cea.fr
M. Gatti (*)
Laboratoire des Solides Irradiés, École Polytechnique, CNRS-CEA/DSM, 91128, Palaiseau,
France
European Theoretical Spectroscopy Facility (ETSF)
Synchrotron SOLEIL, L’Orme des Merisiers, Saint-Aubin, BP 48, 91192,
Gif-sur-Yvette, France
e-mail: matteo.gatti@polytechnique.edu
 F. Bruneval and M. Gatti

Contents
1 Photoemission Spectroscopy and Methods for Electronic Structure Calculations
2 Theoretical Survival Kit in GW Environment
2.1 Green’s Function G and Self-Energy Σ
2.2 The Screened Coulomb Interaction W
2.3 Hedin’s Equations and the GW Approximation
2.4 Practical Calculation of the GW Self-Energy: The G0W0 Approach
3 Beyond G0W0
3.1 Which Starting Point?
3.2 Energy Scales
3.3 Quasiparticle Wavefunctions
4 Quasiparticle Self-Consistent GW
4.1 Full Self-Consistent GW
4.2 The QSGW Approximation to the GW Self-Energy
4.3 Practical Implementation of the QSGW Method
4.4 Results
5 Relation with Alternative Self-Consistent Schemes
5.1 Energy-Only Self-Consistency
5.2 Alternatives to the QSGW: COHSEX and Others
5.3 Hybrid Functionals and LDA+U
6 Conclusions and Outlook
References

1 Photoemission Spectroscopy and Methods for Electronic

Structure Calculations

Photoemission (PES) is one of the most powerful spectroscopy tools that probe the
electronic properties of materials [1, 2]. Direct photoemission is a photon-in
electron-out technique: the energy of an incoming photon is used to extract an
electron (that is called the photoelectron) from the sample. If N is the initial
number of electrons, the electronic system after the electron removal is left in an
(N  1)-electron state, which can be the ground state or an excited state. By
measuring the kinetic energy of the photoelectron, one obtains the ionization
energies of the electrons in the system (i.e., the energy required to remove an
electron, or, equivalently, to create a hole). The affinity energies (i.e., the energy
gained to add an electron to the system) can be analogously obtained by means of
inverse photoemission, which is an electron-in photon-out technique. Electron
addition and removal energies together define the electronic structure of a material
(e.g., its band gap). In particular, when the momentum (and possibly the spin) of the
photoelectron is also measured, as in angular-resolved photoemission (ARPES),
one gets access to the band structure of the material.
From the theoretical point of view, an accurate description of photoemission
spectra is still a great challenge today [3–8]. In the sudden approximation one
Quasiparticle Self-Consistent GW Method for the Spectral Properties. . .

Fig. 1 Experimental
photoemission spectra for
the valence band of the
metallic phase of V2O3 for a
broad range of photon
energies from hv ¼ 19 eV
to hv ¼ 6 KeV. We observe
a strong variation of the
spectra with the photon
energy. From [9]. Copyright
2009, The American
Physical Society

assumes that the photoelectron is immediately decoupled from the sample. In this
approximation the measured photocurrent Jk(ω), which is the probability per unit
time of emitting an electron with momentum k and kinetic energy Ek when the
sample is irradiated with photons of frequency ω, is given by [5]
X 2
J k ð ωÞ ¼ jΔki j Aii ðEk  ωÞ, ð1Þ
i

where we have introduced the matrix elements of the spectral function A(ω) (for
ω < μ, where μ is the Fermi energy), which are weighted by the photoemission
matrix elements Δki that describe the coupling with the photons. Here we have also
assumed that there exists a one-particle basis in which A, rigorously defined as the
imaginary part of the one-particle Green’s function G (see Sect. 2), is diagonal.
While the spectral function Aii is an (intrinsic) property of the (bulk) material,
independent of the photon field, photoemission spectra often display an important
dependence on the photon properties (see Fig. 1). However, when comparing
theoretical results with experimental spectra, most often the photoemission matrix
elements are completely neglected, together with the photon-energy dependence of
the spectra. Going through the series of drastic assumptions that we have made so
far, we see that bridging the gap between theory and experiment is still an important
issue.
 F. Bruneval and M. Gatti

In the following we will confine our discussion to the electronic properties

contained in the spectral function A. In an independent-particle picture the spectral
function for occupied states is simply Aii(ω) ¼ δ(ω  εi)θ(μ  ω) and the
photocurrent

X
occ
J k ðωÞ ¼ δ ð Ek  ω  ε i Þ ð2Þ
i

is hence described by the density of occupied states evaluated at the energy Ek  ω,

and is given by a series of delta peaks corresponding to the energies εi of the
one-particle Hamiltonian. By measuring the kinetic energy of the photoelectron, in
an independent-particle picture one would obtain directly the energy of the
one-particle level that the electron was occupying before being extracted from the
sample. More realistically, as a consequence of the electronic interactions, the delta
peaks in the spectral function acquire a finite width, which corresponds to the finite
lifetime of the excitation in the electronic system. Generally a broadened peak is
still prominent in the spectrum, having a weight Z (called the renormalization
factor) as large as 0.6–0.7 (a delta peak has Z ¼ 1). In these situations one
associates the peak with a quasiparticle (QP) excitation. The collection of the
energy positions of the quasiparticle peaks defines the band structure of the
material, which is most often the target of the calculations.
However, beyond a quasiparticle picture, the spectral function is generally much
richer. In fact, features with lower intensities (the satellites or side bands) are
often visible in the spectra. They correspond to situations in which the electronic
system is left in an (N  1)-electron excited state which cannot be described by a
quasi-hole. Indeed, together with the electron removal, additional excitations
(e.g., plasmons) can also be induced in the system by the absorption of the photon.
Clearly a calculation of quasiparticle energies only is unable to describe satellites,
including Hubbard side bands, which are, by definition, a signature of many-body
effects beyond a band-structure description.
Density-functional theory (DFT) [10] is a ground-state theory and hence is not
appropriate to describe excitation energies measured in photoemission. In the
Kohn–Sham scheme [11] the ground-state density and the ground-state total energy
are obtained from a set of fictitious noninteracting electrons. Unfortunately, the
eigenvalues εi of the Kohn–Sham equation
 
∇2
 þ V ext ðrÞ þ V H ðrÞ þ V xc ðrÞ ϕi ðrÞ ¼ εi ϕi ðrÞ, ð3Þ
2

where Vext, VH, and Vxc are respectively the external, Hartree, and exchange-
correlation potentials, cannot be interpreted as the additional or removal energies
measured in photoemission [12] (except for the HOMO level [13]). In practical
applications, the Kohn–Sham band gaps are most commonly smaller than
the experimental values. The exact quasiparticle band gap is defined as
Quasiparticle Self-Consistent GW Method for the Spectral Properties. . .

[E(N + 1)  E(N )]  [E(N )  E(N  1)], where E(M ) is the ground-state total
energy of M electrons. In finite systems in the “self-consistent field” (Δ-SCF)
scheme, these total energies for N, N  1 electrons can be calculated explicitly
and approximations to Vxc can give good results for the band gaps, since they can
describe Hartree relaxation effects well [14]. The variation of the electron density
δρ for adding or removing an electron scales as 1/N: thus in an infinite system
δρ ! 0. In this limit the Δ-SCF scheme yields, with analytic functionals of the
density such the local-density approximation (LDA) [11], the Kohn–Sham band
gap [15]. In exact Kohn–Sham theory a nonanalytic, discontinuous change in Vxc
with respect to change in the electron number must be present [16–18].
Even in the homogeneous electron gas, where the local-density approximation is
exact for the total energies by definition, the discontinuity of the momentum
distribution at the Fermi surface (which corresponds to the renormalization factor
Z ) and spectral properties such as lifetimes and satellites remain inaccessible in the
Kohn–Sham formalism [19, 20]. The momentum distribution, for instance, can be
accurately calculated using Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) techniques [19], but
excitations contained in the spectral function cannot be easily calculated in QMC at
the moment. Accurate quantum chemical methods, such as full configuration
interaction or coupled-cluster techniques, have been developed for molecular
systems, but until recently they have not been explored in solids for their high
computational complexity [21].
In spectroscopy one is often interested in specific answers to limited questions
and there is no need to calculate the full many-body wavefunction, which contains
more information than necessary. A successful strategy is hence to introduce
suitable quantities with a reduced number of degrees of freedom that are able to
provide the desired spectra. A key quantity is the spectral function – see (1) – which
can be calculated from the Green’s function G:

1 
Aii ðωÞ ¼ ImGii ðωÞ: ð4Þ
π

Many-body perturbation theory (MBPT) has traditionally been the framework in

which different approaches have been developed to calculate G. We can refer to the
various textbooks for a general introduction (see, e.g., [22–24]). Within MBPT,
Hedin’s GW approximation (GWA) [25] represents the state-of-the-art for the
calculation of band structures in a large variety of materials. Besides the early
review work by Hedin and Lundqvist [26], other in-depth reviews were published
around the year 2000 [14, 27, 28]. Since then the number of applications has
exploded, reaching more and more complicated materials such as interfaces [29],
surfaces with adsorbates (see, e.g., [30–32]), or defects in bulk materials (see,
e.g., [33–38]), and extending to other areas like quantum transport (see,
e.g., [39–43]). Moreover, the field itself has experienced several advances, both
from the technical and the fundamental points of view. For instance:
 F. Bruneval and M. Gatti

• Computational schemes that avoid sums of part or all the empty states have
recently been proposed (see, e.g., [44–49]).
• Pathologies and limits of the GWA (e.g., the self-screening problem and the
wrong atomic limit of the Hubbard model) and ways to go beyond GW have been
explored (see, e.g., [34, 50–54]).
• The GWA has been extended in various ways to account for phenomena not
contained in it. Examples include the cumulant expansion (see, e.g., [55, 56]),
the T matrix approximation (see, e.g., [57–59]), approaches developed starting
from the Hubbard model, like dynamical mean field theory (DMFT) [60], or with
the calculation of vibrational excitations [61, 62].
• Another emerging research line in recent years has been the application of the
GWA to non-equilibrium situations by means of the solution of the Baym–
Kadanoff equations (see, e.g., [42, 63–65]).
In this chapter we will focus on the approaches that have been developed in the
last decade to go beyond the perturbative G0W0 scheme (see Sect. 2), which has
been the standard implementation for GW calculations in real materials. We will
focus on the calculation of spectral properties (for instance we will not deal with
calculations of ground-state total energies; see, e.g., [66–70]). While advanced
computational schemes allow one to deal with more complicated materials
(e.g., with a larger number of atoms), beyond-G0W0 approaches have led to a
qualitative breakthrough in ab initio calculations of spectral properties of more
complex materials, such as those containing localized d or f electrons, also includ-
ing the challenging class of strongly correlated materials. In particular, in the
following we will discuss why (see Sect. 3) and how (see Sects. 4 and 5) to go
beyond G0W0, notably by means of the quasiparticle self-consistent GW (QSGW)
method introduced in 2004 by Faleev et al. [71]. Finally, we will conclude the
chapter by presenting a brief discussion of the new prospects that QSGW has
opened in the field.

2 Theoretical Survival Kit in GW Environment

2.1 Green’s Function G and Self-Energy Σ

The single-particle Green’s function G is the most basic ingredient of MBPT. The
time-ordered Green’s function describes the propagation of an extra electron in an
electronic system for positive times and the propagation of a missing electron
(i.e., a hole) for negative times1:

1
Here the spin degrees of freedom are omitted for simplicity. The generalization is however
straightforward.
Quasiparticle Self-Consistent GW Method for the Spectral Properties. . .

    
iGðrt, r0 t0 Þ ¼ θ t  t0  N0ψ ðrtÞψ { ðr0 t0 ÞN0
ð5Þ
θðt0  tÞ N0ψ { ðr0 t0 Þψ ðrtÞN0 ,

where |N0i denotes the exact ground-state wavefunction of an N electron system, ψ

and ψ { are the annihilation/creation field operators in the Heisenberg picture, and θ
is the step function.
The physical meaning of G becomes clear when inserting the closure relation in
between the two field operators and taking a Fourier transform in time. The
so-called Lehmann representation reads
X f ðrÞf  ðr0 Þ
Gðr, r0 , ωÞ ¼ i i
: ð6Þ
i
ω  Ei

The poles of G are located at the energies Ei:

Ei ¼ ENþ1i  EN0  iη when Ei > μ

ð7Þ
¼ EN0  EN1i þ iη when Ei < μ,

where the energies EN  1i are the exact eigenenergies of the N  1 electron system
and i is the index labeling the exact eigenvectors of both the N  1 and N + 1
electron systems. The ubiquitous vanishing positive η has naturally arisen from the
Fourier transform of the step functions. In a solid, the discrete set of poles in (6)
merges into a branch-cut. The so-called Lehmann amplitudes fi are then defined as
   
f i ðrÞ ¼ N0ψ ðr0
 ÞN þ 1i when Ei > μ
  ð8Þ
¼ N  1iψ ðr0ÞN0 when Ei < μ:

Note that the Lehmann amplitudes fi are not mutually orthogonal. From this
representation we see that the poles Ei carry the exact ionization energies of
electrons in the system or the exact affinity energies. The analytical structure of
G is also made clear: the poles lie slightly above the real axis for Ei < μ and slightly
below for Ei > μ. The poles can be directly compared to the peaks obtained from a
photoemission or inverse photoemission experiment (see Sect. 1).
Because G is the fundamental quantity, a great deal of effort has been put in to its
evaluation in a many-body context. This poses a very large challenge since equation
of motion for G involves the two-particle Green’s function. Its equation of motion
in turn involves the three-particle Green’s function, and so on. The standard remedy
in MBPT is to break this hierarchy by introducing an effective operator, the self-
energy Σ. As Schwinger showed, by introducing an auxiliary external field U(rt)
that is set to zero at the end, it is possible to express formally the two-particle
Green’s function as a function of the one-particle Green’s function [72]. This results
in an equation of motion for G alone:
 F. Bruneval and M. Gatti

ð
dr0 f½ω  h0 ðrÞ  V H ðrÞδðr  r0 Þ  Σðr, r0 , ωÞgGðr0 , r00 , ωÞ ¼ δðr  r00 Þ: ð9Þ

Here h0 is the non-interacting Hamiltonian and VH the Hartree potential – see (3).
Note that the self-energy Σ hides all the complexity of the original problem and thus
is a non-local, dynamical and non-Hermitian operator. When Σ ¼ 0 the Green’s
function G0 is simply the resolvent of the Hartree Hamiltonian: G1 0 ¼ ω  h0 
VH. We refer the reader to the review articles of Strinati [72] or of Hedin and
Lundqvist [26] for further details.
Dyson’s equation results by multiplying (9) by G0:
ð
Gðr; r0 ; ωÞ ¼ G0 ðr; r0 ; ωÞþ dr1 dr2 G0 ðr; r1 ; ωÞΣðr1 ; r2 ; ωÞGðr2; r0 ; ωÞ: ð10Þ

This equation establishes the link between the Hartree Green’s function G0
(easily calculated) and the fully interacting Green’s function G (very hard to
calculate) through the self-energy Σ.
The purpose of MBPT is then to provide approximations with increasing
accuracy for the self-energy. The Coulomb interaction between electrons

1
v ðr  r 0 Þ ¼ 0 ð11Þ
jr  r j

is considered as the perturbation with respect to the independent-particle case. The

first-order contribution to the self-energy is nothing else but the Fock exchange
operator (the Hartree potential is already taken into account by G0). This level of
approximation is widely used for atoms and molecules, and in quantum chemistry
perturbative methods in v with respect to Hartree–Fock are known as Møller–Plesset
perturbation theory [73]. However, for the homogeneous electron gas, Hartree–Fock
yields an anomalous zero density of states at the Fermi level. There is therefore a
stringent need for higher order terms for periodic systems. Unfortunately, the ana-
lytical evaluation of one of the two second-order contributions is not finite in the case
of the homogeneous electron gas [22, 23]. Perturbation theory is thus not justified.
How should one proceed to circumvent this problem, especially for periodic systems?

2.2 The Screened Coulomb Interaction W

This divergence can be addressed in an effective manner by introducing a screened

counterpart to the Coulomb interaction v. Other electrons act as a dielectric medium
that reduces the interaction between any pair. It is common sense that the interac-
tion between charges is not the same in vacuum as in a dielectric medium. At the
macroscopic scale this is measured by the dielectric constant of the medium. At the
microscopic scale the screening of the Coulomb interaction is given by
Quasiparticle Self-Consistent GW Method for the Spectral Properties. . .

ð
Wðr; r0 ; ωÞ ¼ dr1 ε1 ðr; r1 ; ωÞvðr1  r0 Þ, ð12Þ

where the microscopic dielectric matrix ε 1 has been introduced. ε is linked to the
macroscopic dielectric function εM [74, 75], which is a measurable quantity. For
instance,  Imε1 M is called the loss function and can be measured by electron
energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) or inelastic X-ray scattering (IXS).
So far, the expression of the dielectric matrix has not been specified. Neverthe-
less, one can still analyze the physical meaning of the dynamically screened
Coulomb interaction W(r,r0 ,ω). The effective interaction between electrons in a
medium is decreased from v, the bare Coulomb interaction, to W the screened
interaction. A perturbation theory based on W rather than on v then makes much
more sense. However there is a price to pay: the screened interaction W is dynam-
ical, meaning that the screening is more effective for some frequencies than for
others. For metals, the static dielectric constant is infinite and consequently the
long-range component of W vanishes. This fixes the problem of the vanishing
density of states at the Fermi level predicted by Hartree–Fock theory for the
homogeneous electron gas. Conversely, in the high frequency limit, the screening
by the electrons becomes completely ineffective and the screened Coulomb inter-
action is simply the bare Coulomb interaction.
The additional complexity contained in W compared to v bears the hope that the
perturbation theory is to be rapidly convergent. Maybe, as W already contains an
infinite sum of interactions v, just the first order in W will suffice, as proposed by
Hedin [25].

2.3 Hedin’s Equations and the GW Approximation

Employing W instead of v in the MBPT allowed Hedin to reformulate the exact

equations of the solution of the many-electron problem for the calculation of
G [25]. They read:
ð
Gð1; 2Þ ¼ G0 ð1; 2Þ þ dð34ÞG0 ð1; 3ÞΣð3; 4ÞGð4; 2Þ ð13aÞ
ð
Σð1; 2Þ ¼ i dð34ÞGð1; 3ÞW ð1þ ; 4ÞΓð3; 2; 4Þ ð13bÞ
ð
W ð1; 2Þ ¼ d ð3Þε1 ð1; 3Þvð3; 2Þ ð13cÞ
ð
εð1; 2Þ ¼ δð1; 2Þ  d ð3Þvð1; 3Þeχ ð3; 2Þ ð13dÞ
 F. Bruneval and M. Gatti

Fig. 2 Schematic view of the three frameworks described in this review. The exact expression
(GWΓ, left panel) can be obtained after an initialization with a guessed Green’s function G0 by
iteration of all the Hedin’s equations. The self-consistent GW approximation (GW, central panel)
arises from the iteration of the equations keeping the vertex function Γ ¼ 1. The perturbative GW
approximation (G0W0, right panel) is the one-shot evaluation of the GW self-energy based on the
guessed Green’s function G0

ð
e
χ ð1; 2Þ ¼ i d ð34ÞGð1; 3ÞGð4; 1ÞΓð3; 4; 2Þ ð13eÞ
ð
δΣð1; 2Þ
Γð1; 2; 3Þ ¼ δð1; 2Þδð1; 3Þ þ dð4567Þ Gð4; 6ÞGð7; 5ÞΓð6; 7; 3Þ: ð13fÞ
δGð4; 5Þ

Contracted indexes (1) ¼ (r1,t1,σ 1) have been used for simplification. The index
1+ denotes the times t1 + η for a vanishing positive η. Most of the quantities have
been introduced earlier. e χ is the irreducible polarizability and Γ is the three-point
vertex function. These nonlinear equations are coupled. If solved self-consistently,
these equations form an exact scheme to obtain the solution of the many-body
problem. This process is pictured in the left panel of Fig. 2. Of course, in practice,
even in the simplest cases it is not feasible, mainly due to the presence of the three-
point vertex function Γ. It is then natural that an approximated scheme begins by
simplifying this particular term.
The second term in the right-hand side of (13f) involves the self-energy which is
of first-order in W according to (13b). Retaining only the zero-order terms in (13f)
(i.e., the δ functions), Hedin’s equations are greatly simplified:
ð
Gð1; 2Þ ¼ G0 ð1; 2Þ þ dð34ÞG0 ð1; 3ÞΣð3; 4ÞGð4; 2Þ ð14aÞ
Quasiparticle Self-Consistent GW Method for the Spectral Properties. . .

Σð1; 2Þ ¼ iGð1; 2ÞW ð1þ ; 2Þ ð14bÞ

ð
W ð1; 2Þ ¼ d ð3Þε1 ð1; 3Þvð3; 2Þ ð14cÞ
ð
εð1; 2Þ ¼ δð1; 2Þ  d ð3Þvð1; 3Þeχ ð3; 2Þ ð14dÞ

e
χ ð1; 2Þ ¼ iGð1; 2ÞGð2; 1Þ: ð14eÞ

The irreducible polarizability χe is then a simple product of two Green’s

functions. This is the well known Random-Phase Approximation (RPA) to the
dielectric matrix. The self-energy is also much simplified: this is just the simple
product of G and W, giving the name to the GW approximation. It is of first-order in
W. The missing terms (second and higher orders in W ) are commonly named the
“vertex corrections”.
The set of equations (14a–14e) still requires a self-consistent treatment since
W and Σ depend on G, which is the quantity one needs to find. This is pictured in the
central panel of Fig. 2. The practical implementation of these equations is still far
from obvious. This is the reason why for many years the GW self-energy has been
evaluated non-self-consistently.

2.4 Practical Calculation of the GW Self-Energy: The G0W0

Approach

It is usually impossible to evaluate the Green’s function self-consistently from

(14a–14e). However, let us imagine that mean-field theories such as Hartree–
Fock or Kohn–Sham provide a good description of the electronic system under
study. In a mean-field theory, the one-electron wavefunctions ϕi(r) and eigenvalues
ɛi allow one to evaluate the independent-particle Green’s function2 G0

 0  X ϕi ðrÞϕ∗ 0
i ðr Þ
G0 r; r ; ω ¼ : ð15Þ
i
ω  εi þ iηsignðεi  μÞ

The location of the poles of G0 are above the real axis for occupied states and
below for empty states. As a consequence, e χ and then W can be readily evaluated
from this expression of G0. Let us label this evaluation of the irreducible polariz-
ability χ 0 and of the screened Coulomb interaction, W0. Finally, the GW self-energy
is obtained as the convolution G0W0.

2
G0 here can be understood as a generalization of the Hartree Green’s function introduced in
(10.2), and thus we keep the same notation for a distinct quantity. See also Sect. 2.1 for an
extended discussion.
 F. Bruneval and M. Gatti

The so-called G0W0 approach consists in stopping the procedure immediately

after the first evaluation of the self-energy, as shown in the right hand panel of
Fig. 2. This “one-shot” procedure is justified when the starting mean-field theory
used for G0 is accurate enough for the targeted property. The vast majority of the
GW applications for almost 50 years have been obtained with the G0W0 procedure.
Of course, the choice of the starting point is material dependent. The seminal paper
of Hedin [25] simply employed the free electron model to calculate the GW self-
energy for the homogeneous electron gas. The first application of GW to real solids
used either the Hartree–Fock approximation [76] or the local density approximation
[77]. For atoms, Shirley and Martin chose Hartree–Fock [78]. The rationale under-
lying the choice is the selection of the most accurate mean-field theory for the
specific system under scrutiny. This strategy is sometimes referred to as the “best G,
best W” approach (see Sect. 3.1).
In the quasiparticle approximation, the Dyson equation (10) becomes
  ð
∇2 0  0 
 þ V ext ðrÞ þ V H ðrÞ ψ i ðrÞ þ dr Σ r; r ; Ei ψ i ðr0 Þ ¼ Ei ψ i ðrÞ ð16Þ
2

In the G0W0 framework one assumes that the quasiparticle wavefunctions ψ i can
be approximated by the Kohn–Sham orbitals ϕi. By comparing (3) and (16) one
finds that the quasiparticle energies Ei can be calculated as a first-order correction
with respect to the underlying mean-field starting point from
   
Ei ¼ εi þ ϕi ΣðEi Þ  V xc ϕi , ð17Þ

where Σ is the G0W0 self-energy. From a linearization of the frequency dependence

of Σ, one finally obtains
   
Ei ¼ εi þ Zi ϕi Σðεi Þ  V xc ϕi , ð18Þ

where the renormalization factors Zi are

 ∂ΣðωÞ   1
Z i ¼ 1  hϕi  ω¼ε ϕi i : ð19Þ
∂ω i

In most G0W0 calculations the band structures are obtained using (18). One can
also calculate the spectral function defined in (4) from:
   
1  ϕi ImΣðωÞϕi 
Aii ðωÞ ¼         : ð20Þ
π ω  εi  ϕi ReΣðωÞ  V xc ϕi 2 þ ϕi ImΣðωÞϕi 2

The spectral function has poles correspondence to the quasiparticle energies, i.e.,
when ω  εi  hϕi|ReΣ(ω)  Vxc|ϕii ¼ 0; cf. (17). The width of the quasiparticle
peak is given by ImΣ(ω), which is hence linked to the lifetime of the excitation
(defined as the inverse of its width). The spectral function can have other peaks, the
Quasiparticle Self-Consistent GW Method for the Spectral Properties. . .

satellites, that originate from structures in ImΣ(ω). ω  εi  hϕi|ReΣ(ω)  Vxc|ϕii

can also have additional zeroes, giving rise to satellites. Within the GWA this latter
kind of satellites has been called plasmarons [79, 80], but lately they have been
shown to be an artifact of the GWA [56, 81, 82]. In Hartree–Fock the self-energy is
Hermitian: ImΣ(ω) ¼ 0. Therefore quasiparticle peaks become delta functions (i.e.,
the lifetime of quasiparticle becomes infinite). Moreover, since the self-energy is
static, no other structures (e.g., satellites) can appear in the spectral function.
The GW self-energy can be split into a Fock exchange term Σx and a correlation
term Σc(ω): Σ(ω) ¼ Σx + Σc(ω). While Σx ¼ iGv is static, the evaluation of Σc(ω)
requires the calculation of the convolution integral of G and Wp ¼ W  v:
ð
i 0 0  0  0
Σc ð r 1 ; r 2 ; ω Þ ¼ dω eiηω G r1 , r2 , ω þ ω W p r1 ; r2 ; ω : ð21Þ
2π

Since Σc is obtained through the frequency integration (21), the fine details of the
energy dependence of Wp are often not important. In these cases one can approx-
imate the imaginary part of the inverse dielectric function ε 1 as a single-pole
function in ω (plasmon-pole model) [83, 84]. Plasmon-pole models can be used for
calculating quasiparticle energies, but should be avoided for spectral functions
because, for example, they do not describe ImΣ correctly. In these cases the full-
frequency dependence of Σ is required and the frequency integration has to be
performed with care [85].
The spectral representation of Wp is given by [5]
X ωs W s ð r 1 ; r 2 Þ
W p ðr1 ; r2 ; ωÞ ¼ 2 : ð22Þ
s ω2  ðωs  iηÞ2

The poles of Wp are the energies ωs that correspond to neutral excitations

(electron-hole transitions and plasmons). By combining (22) with (15) and
performing the frequency integration (21), one finds that the G0W0 self-energy is
given by the sum of two terms:
X
ΣSEX ðr1 ; r2 ; ωÞ ¼  θðμ  εi Þϕi ðr1 Þϕ∗
i ðr2 ÞW ðr1 , r2 , ω  εi Þ, ð23aÞ
i
X X W s ðr1 ; r2 Þ
ΣCOH ðr1 ; r2 ; ωÞ ¼ ϕi ðr1 Þϕ∗
i ðr 2 Þ : ð23bÞ
i s
ω  ðωs  iηÞ  εi

The first term arises from the poles in G and the second from the poles in W.
Owing to the similarity of the first term with the Fock exchange, it is usually called
the “screened exchange” term. The second term is referred to as the “Coulomb-
hole” term [25]. If a further static approximation is carried out, this decomposition
gives rise to the so-called COHSEX (Coulomb hole plus screened exchange), first
introduced by Hedin [25, 79]. This static and Hermitian self-energy is obtained by
setting ω  εi ¼ 0 in ΣSEX(ω) and ΣCOH(ω). This corresponds to assuming that the
 F. Bruneval and M. Gatti

main contribution to the self-energy Σ(ω) stems from the states εi close to ω. So
ω  εi is small compared to the main excitations in W which are at the plasmon
energies ωs [25, 79].
In the majority of practical cases the G0W0 scheme is largely sufficient to
evaluate successfully the GW self-energy. However for some cases it is not. This
review will focus precisely on those pathological cases.

3 Beyond G0W0

In this section we will present arguments to show why one should go beyond the
G0W0 scheme that has been introduced in the previous section. First of all, we will
discuss the criticisms that can be raised about G0W0 from the point of view of basic
principles. Then we will consider a case study where the G0W0 scheme shows in
practice to be inadequate under different aspects. This practical example is VO2, a
prototypical transition metal oxide, which has been the subject of an intense debate
for the last 5 decades for its metal-insulator transition occurring just above room
temperature [86].

3.1 Which Starting Point?

The GW approximation can be seen to correspond to the first step of an iterative

solution of Hedin’s equations that takes as the starting point Σ ¼ 0 (see Fig. 2).
Therefore, in principle the GW self-energy should be built using a Green’s function
G calculated in the Hartree approximation (i.e., with Σ ¼ 0). However, the Hartree
approximation is generally inadequate, giving bad electron densities and
one-particle wavefunctions. Moreover, performing an additional step in the itera-
tive solution of Hedin’s equations leads to the inclusion of vertex corrections
beyond GW that are immediately very expensive from the computational point
of view.
One would rather like to remain within the GWA and find an alternative
strategy to evaluate the self-energy, discarding the idea of solving Hedin’s equa-
tions iteratively. This has been the approach followed in practice in the application
of the GWA to the calculations of band structures of real materials [18, 77,
83]. The idea is to build the GW self-energy with the best ingredients that can
be calculated from first-principles. Historically, in solids this led to the use of the
LDA or the GGA (alternatively, Hartree–Fock for atoms [78]) at the place of the
Hartree approximation. This was justified by the observation that in sp semi-
conductors and metals LDA wavefunctions are a good approximation to QP
wavefunctions [83] (see Sect. 2.4). A posteriori this choice was validated by the
good agreement of G0W0 results with experimental band gaps [27, 28].
Quasiparticle Self-Consistent GW Method for the Spectral Properties. . .

Moreover, still in the spirit of the iterative solution of Hedin’s equations, one
could improve the starting point by setting Σ ¼ Vxc, instead of Σ ¼ 0 [83, 87]. This
would give a self-energy that still has a GW-like form. However, the Coulomb
interaction is now screened by an effective dielectric function that has a electron-
test-charge form, e ε ¼ 1  ðv þ f xc Þχ 0 , instead of the RPA ε used in the standard
GW approximation, ε ¼ 1  vχ 0. The main difference is that in the electron-test-
charge case the induced charge generates an exchange-correlation potential in
addition to the induced Coulomb potential that is already taken into account at
the RPA level. This approximation has been called “GWΓ” [87] because it contains,
to some extent, vertex corrections beyond GW. It is consistently derived and
calculated using Kohn–Sham ingredients. It has been shown to give results that
are similar to (or slightly worse than) standard LDA-based GW [29, 52, 87, 88],
adding another argument in favor of the pragmatic “best G best W” approach.
Vertex corrections beyond the local approximation used to build vertex in the
“GWΓ” scheme [87] are still an open question under investigation [89, 90].
Anyway, this “best G best W” strategy clearly introduces a degree of arbitrar-
iness in the results. As any first-order perturbation scheme, the G0W0 results directly
depend on the quality of the starting point (i.e., the zero order of the perturbative
scheme). In general, Hartree–Fock overestimates and the LDA (or GGA) underes-
timates band gaps (and analogously HOMO-LUMO gaps in finite systems). G0W0
corrections improve with respect to the starting point, getting closer to experiment
from above if starting from Hartree–Fock, or from below if starting from LDA or
GGA. Therefore G0W0 results obtained from these two starting points generally
bracket the reference values, and starting from any hybrid functional mixing LDA
with Fock non-local exchange gives rise to intermediate results between the two.
This observation is, for instance, illustrated for a benchmark of 34 small closed-
shell molecules in Fig. 3. Deviations from the reference quantum chemistry
CCSD(T) calculations are reported: each bar corresponds to a different approxima-
tion for the exchange-correlation functional used in the underlying mean-field
calculation, comprising local, semilocal, and several hybrid functionals [92]. Sim-
ilar results for atoms and molecules have recently been obtained, for instance also
in [91, 93–96], and these observations can be generalized to extended systems as
well.
Moreover, in contrast to the first applications of the LDA-based G0W0 scheme,
in recent years the investigation of more complex materials has shown severe
limitations of the G0W0 approach. Alternative starting points beyond LDA have
been put forward, either remaining in the Kohn–Sham scheme – e.g., using the
exact exchange approximation (EXX) [97, 98] or LDA+U [99, 100] – or moving to
a generalized Kohn–Sham scheme and adding a part of non-local Fock exchange –
e.g., using the Heyd–Scuseria–Ernzerhof (HSE) hybrid functional [101, 102]. In
most cases bad G0W0 results have been explained in terms of the inadequacy of the
underlying LDA starting point.
 F. Bruneval and M. Gatti

Mean Error ( eV ) 3 DFT

GW@DFT
2

-1
HF PBE B3LYP BH&HLYP tuned CAM-B3LYP
LDA PBE0 HSE06 CAM-B3LYP
Mean Absolute Error ( eV )

0
HF PBE B3LYP BH&HLYP tuned CAM-B3LYP
LDA PBE0 HSE06 CAM-B3LYP

Fig. 3 Deviation of the HOMO energies with respect to the CCSD(T) total energy difference. The
upper panel shows the mean error (ME), and the lower panel the mean-absolute error (MAE) for
the 34-molecule set introduced in [91]. The shaded bar corresponds to the HOMO energy of the
starting point, and the white bar shows the corresponding G0W0 HOMO energy. Reprinted with
permission from [92]. Copyright 2013, American Chemical Society

3.2 Energy Scales

In the G0W0 scheme, the self-energy displays a dependency on the absolute energy
scale used for the construction of G0. To illustrate this statement we follow Hedin
[5, 25] and we introduce an arbitrary shift Δ of the energy scale of G0. The Green’s
function GΔ0 , depending parametrically on Δ, can be written as (see (15))

X ϕi ðr1 Þϕ∗
i ðr 2 Þ
G0Δ ðr1 ; r2 ; ωÞ ¼ ð24Þ
i
ω  εi  Δ þ iηsgnðεi  μÞ

While χ 0 and W0 are independent of Δ, the G0W0 self-energy becomes

ΣΔ ðωÞ ¼ ΣΔ¼0 ðω  ΔÞ: ð25Þ

Using the linear expansion of ΣΔ(ω) – see (18) – the quasiparticle energies are in
turn calculated as
  Δ¼0  
Ei ¼ εi þ Δ þ ZΔ¼0
i ϕi Σ ðεi Þ  V xc ϕi  Δ : ð26Þ

The result should not depend on the absolute energy scale, which is arbitrary.
Quasiparticle Self-Consistent GW Method for the Spectral Properties. . .

6 ImΣ(ω)
ω−εKS+Vxc−ReΣ(ω)
4 A(ω) x 10

-2

-4
ΔF
-6

-6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
Energy [eV]

Fig. 4 Spectral functions A(ω) and self-energy Σ(ω) for the top-valence state at Γ point for the
metallic phase of VO2, calculated in G0W0 (dashed lines) and eigenvalue self-consistent GW (solid
lines). Vertical orange arrow: energy of the LDA KS state. Vertical dotted line: Fermi energy in
LDA. The zero of the energy axis is at the Fermi energy calculated in the eigenvalue
self-consistent GW. ΔF is the shift of the Fermi energy. From Gatti et al. (2013) Unpublished

On the contrary, here we see that shifting by Δ the energy scale of G0 leads to a
variation of the quasiparticle energies equal to (1  ZiΔ ¼ 0)Δ. This is a conse-
quence of the fact that the self-energy in the GWA is dynamical, hence Zi 6¼ 1.
However, if the renormalization factors Zi do not change much from state to
state, as is generally the case in simple systems, this dependency on the absolute
energy scale of G0 has a tiny effect on the G0W0 band-structure results. In this
situation, in fact, changing arbitrarily the energy scale of G0 would only give a rigid
shift of the whole band structure.
In order to fix this problem, Hedin suggested setting the energy scale by
requiring a self-consistency at the Fermi level [5, 25]. This means setting Δ equal
to the matrix element of the self-energy at the Fermi level calculated with Δ ¼ 0.
A more general solution would be to calculate self-consistently the energies
entering Σ (and hence also the Fermi level).
A more severe consequence of this dependency on the energy scale can be found
in the calculation of spectral functions. To see this effect in practice, we consider
here the example of the metallic phase of VO2 [Gatti et al. (2013) Unpublished]. In
Fig. 4 we compare the spectral functions calculated within G0W0 (dashed lines) and
within a scheme in which the quasiparticle energies used to calculate the GW self-
energy are updated to self-consistency (solid lines). In LDA the spectral function
for each state is just a delta peak and in Fig. 4 the LDA top valence at the Γ point is
represented by the vertical arrow. It corresponds to a V 3d state. In G0W0 the
corresponding position of the quasiparticle peak is shifted upwards and its width
becomes finite, meaning a finite lifetime of the quasiparticle excitation. The shift of
the peaks is similar for all the other V 3d states (not shown in Fig. 4), which also
 F. Bruneval and M. Gatti

have very similar renormalization factors. This is the situation described above: the
absolute energy scale entering G0 does not have an important influence on the band-
structure results.
On the contrary, G0W0 gives an inaccurate description of the incoherent features
(i.e., besides the quasiparticle peak) in the spectral function. In fact, the satellite
measured in the photoemission spectrum of metallic VO2 [103] is too weak in the
G0W0 spectral function (see dashed red line in Fig. 4)) [104]. On the basis of this
G0W0 result, one would claim the inadequacy of the GW approximation for the
description of this genuine signature of dynamical correlation. However, we now
show that it is actually a problem of the G0W0 scheme itself.
In G0W0 the energy scale for G0 is given by the LDA starting point. For example,
the imaginary part of the G0W0 self-energy can be written as (see (15), (21), and
(22))
X
ImΣðr; r0 ; ωÞ ¼ sgnðμ  εi Þπ ϕi ðrÞϕ∗ 0 0
i ðr ÞW s ðr; r Þδ½ω  εi þ ωs sgnðμ  εi Þ
i, s6¼0

ð27Þ

where εi are LDA energies and μ the LDA Fermi energy. Therefore, the G0W0 ImΣ(ω)
(see dashed black line in Fig. 4) changes its sign, crossing zero at the LDA Fermi
energy (vertical dotted line in Fig. 4) which does not correspond to the Fermi
energy after inclusion of GW corrections. In the eigenvalue self-consistent GW
scheme, instead, since the energies εi entering the self-energy are updated self-
consistently, ImΣ(ω) (solid black line), as expected, crosses zero at the Fermi
energy μ that is obtained self-consistently (zero of energy axis in Fig. 4).
The peaks in ImΣ(ω) can give rise to structures (satellites) in the spectral
function; see (20). This is indeed the case for the top-valence state of VO2 in
Fig. 4. For occupied states peaks of ImΣ(ω) are located approximately at  ωs + εi;
see (27). In VO2 ωs1.5 eV is the energy of a localized d  d plasmon and the
coupling with this plasmon is at the origin of the satellite [105]. This satellite is
called a shake-up excitation. This means that in the photoemission process the
photoemitted electron leaves the (N  1)-electron system in an excited state in
which the creation of an additional plasmon excitation has occurred. The main QP
peak in this case corresponds to the ground state of the (N  1)-electron system.
On the basis of this physical picture, for the energy-conservation rule we expect
that in the spectral function the satellite is at lower energy than the quasiparticle
peak and the distance is equal to the plasmon energy ωs. However, this does not
happen in G0W0 approximation. In fact, in G0W0 the QP energy is shifted upwards
with respect to the LDA energy εi that is used to build ImΣi. If we call this shift Δi,
from (27) we find that the peak of ImΣi is located at  ωs + εi and hence has a
distance Δi + ωs from the QP peak. Since Δi > 0, the satellite in G0W0 has then too
high a binding energy. Moreover, the intensity is so weak that one would even
Quasiparticle Self-Consistent GW Method for the Spectral Properties. . .

conclude that there is no satellite in GW [104]. Instead, in the eigenvalue self-

consistent GW scheme the satellite gets closer to the QP peak (see solid red line),
because at self-consistency Δi ¼ 0. The distance between the satellite and the QP
peak becomes correctly  ωs, i.e., the energy of the plasmon. Moreover, the
intensity of the satellite is enhanced with respect to G0W0 due to the fact that
|(ω  εi  (ReΣi(ω)  Vxc i )| becomes smaller (compare solid and dashed cyan
lines). In conclusion, the eigenvalue-self-consistent GW scheme gives a correct
description of the low-energy satellite [Gatti et al. (2013) Unpublished], in contrast
to G0W0.
The example just discussed shows that conclusions about spectral functions
should not be based on calculations at the G0W0 level, especially if one is interested
in spectral properties close to the Fermi level and the self-energy induces a
non-negligible shift of the positions of the peaks with respect to the LDA starting
point. In fact the same problem has been observed in other situations, such as
Hubbard chains [106] or SrVO3, another prototypical strongly correlated metal
[107]. This conclusion is also relevant when GW is combined with other methods
that calculate spectral functions, such as dynamical mean field theory (DMFT).

3.3 Quasiparticle Wavefunctions

The G0W0 scheme is based on the hypothesis that QP wavefunctions can be

approximated by LDA orbitals; see (17). This assumption holds for simple semi-
conductors and metals and has been investigated in depth, e.g., for bulk silicon
[83]. However, it has been known for a long time that it can be questionable for
finite systems [108] and surfaces [109–111]. In simple systems like bulk silicon the
LDA conduction wave functions have also recently been shown to be of signifi-
cantly poorer quality, in particular away from highly symmetric points of the
Brillouin zone [112]. Here, through the case study of the insulating phase of VO2,
we discuss a situation in which the G0W0 perturbation theory breaks down
completely [105]. Similar problems occur when LDA produces a wrong ordering
of the bands (see, e.g., [113, 114]).
Across the metal-insulator transition, VO2 also undergoes a structural phase
transition from rutile (metal) to monoclinic (insulator). This is accompanied by the
formation of V–V dimers along the rutile c axis, resulting into a doubling of the unit
cell. The LDA underestimates the bonding-antibonding splitting of the V 3d states
associated with the formation of these V–V dimers and in turn the band structure is
metallic [115]. Alternatively, the metallic LDA band structure has been interpreted
as the proof of the strongly correlated nature of VO2 [116].
In apparent support of the hypothesis of “strong correlation,” G0W0 based on
LDA also fails to open the gap. In order to get rid of the LDA starting point, QP
wavefunctions have been calculated self-consistently in the COHSEX approxima-
tion [105]. This self-consistent quasiparticle calculation does succeed in opening a
 F. Bruneval and M. Gatti

Fig. 5 (Left panel)

Isosurface of the LDA
electron density for the top
valence V 3d bands in
insulating VO2. It is a V–V
dimer bonding a1g state,
highly polarized along the
cc axis (vertical axis in the
figure). (Right panel)
Difference between
COHSEX and LDA
electron density for the
same states. Yellow surfaces
are for positive variations
and purple for negative
ones. The c-axis
polarization increases for
COHSEX wavefunctions.
See [105]

gap (0.8 eV, quite close to the experimental value of 0.6 eV). In contrast, in a
COHSEX calculation where the wavefunctions are constrained to be the LDA ones
and only the energies are updated self-consistently, a gap close to zero is found: the
change of the wavefunctions with respect to the LDA ones is thus of utmost
importance.
In Fig. 5 the LDA electron density for the top valence bands is plotted (see the
left panel). It represents the V a1g states that derive from the V–V dimer bonding
states and are hence highly polarized along the V–V dimer axis (the vertical c axis
in the figure). The self-consistent QP COHSEX calculation results in the enhance-
ment of this anisotropy, inducing a stronger bonding character to the top valence
wavefunctions. Therefore if the orbital redistribution associated with the formation
of V–V dimers is underestimated, as happens in LDA, the system remains metallic.
Since LDA orbitals are not a sufficiently good approximation of the QP
wavefunctions at the Fermi level, the G0W0 perturbative scheme on top of LDA
is not valid in the present situation. Improved QP wavefunctions are instead
obtained in the COHSEX approximation, which can be used for a subsequent
G0W0 calculation.
More generally, this conclusion about the failure of G0W0 holds for d and f
electron states for which the LDA tends to produce too delocalized wavefunctions
[71, 113, 117–126]. The Fock exchange term of the self-energy is essential in these
situations to cure this delocalization error [126].
Quasiparticle Self-Consistent GW Method for the Spectral Properties. . .

Fig. 6 Absorption 40
250
spectrum Im E of insulating
35 200
VO2, calculated in the
independent-particle 150
30
approximation using 100
COHSEX+ G0W0 energies 25 50
and LDA (yellow line in the 0

Im ε
20 0 1 2 3 4 5
main panel and in the inset)
LDA wavefunctions
or COHSEX (blue line) 15 COHSEX wavefunctions
wavefunctions. See Gatti
et al. (2013) Unpublished 10

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5
Energy [eV]

Finally, in Fig. 6 we illustrate the effect of using QP wavefunctions instead of

LDA ones in the optical spectra of insulating VO2 [Gatti et al. (2013) Unpublished].
Here the absorption spectrum, given by the imaginary part of the dielectric function
ɛM, is obtained as a sum over independent vertical transitions from valence to
conduction states, corresponding to Fermi’s golden rule in the independent-particle
picture. The energies of these transition are calculated using the COHSEX+ G0W0
results that correctly produce an insulator in VO2 [105]; hence the onset of the
optical spectrum is at a finite energy. However, the spectrum calculated with LDA
wavefunctions starts with a peak of huge intensity (see yellow line). This huge peak
derives from the shift of the metallic Drude peak at ω  0 in the spectrum
calculated with metallic LDA eigenvalues. In order to understand this problem
better, we write the oscillators strengths for vanishing q that determine the absorp-
tion spectrum by using k
p perturbation theory [127]:
   
  iq:r 
 
 iq
ϕvk  H KS ; r ϕck
lim ϕvk e ϕckþq ¼ lim , ð28Þ
q!0 q!0 εck  εvk

with HKSϕi ¼ εiϕi. If LDA wavefunctions are used to calculate the oscillator
strengths (28), then the energy differences appearing at the denominator in (28)
are by definition also to be calculated in LDA. Therefore, since VO2 is metallic in
LDA, for the first transitions the denominator is vanishingly small. In turn, the
oscillator strength of the first peak remains very high, although the position is given
correctly by COHSEX+ G0W0 energy differences. Thus the wrong oscillator
strength is due to the use of LDA wavefunctions and is corrected by using QP
wavefunctions calculated in the self-consistent COHSEX scheme (see blue line in
Fig. 6). The effect is drastic for VO2, but one should expect similar behavior
whenever the opening of a small bandgap is accompanied by a change of
wavefunctions.
 F. Bruneval and M. Gatti

4 Quasiparticle Self-Consistent GW

For all the aforementioned reasons, it seems very attractive to get rid of the mean-
field starting point which pervasively affects all the G0W0 results. The natural way
to do so would be to turn to self-consistent GW calculations, as pictured in the
central panel of Fig. 2. However, the full self-consistent GW approach suffers from
many drawbacks as we will show in the next paragraph. This is the main reason why
Faleev, Kotani, and van Schilfgaarde introduced in 2004 the so-called “Quasipar-
ticle-Self-consistent GW” scheme [71], to which this section is devoted.

4.1 Full Self-Consistent GW

The full self-consistent GW is affected by two kinds of issues: there are some well
identified theoretical problems and the calculations are extremely cumbersome.
In the self-consistent GW scheme, the Dyson equation (10) is solved self-
consistently using the GW self-energy. At first sight, self-consistent GW is appeal-
ing, since it is a conserving approximation, obeying conservation laws for particle
number, energy, and momentum under the influence of external perturbations
[129]. For instance, it has been shown to yield very accurate total energies
[68, 69]. However, in self-consistent GW the polarizability e χ is built from the
interacting Green’s functions G that contain dynamical self-energy effects. In
contrast to G0, the spectrum of the full Green’s function G contains not only
quasiparticles but also “incoherent” parts with a finite spectral weight. This transfer
of spectral weight is measured by the renormalization factor Z, which is most often
smaller than 1. When performing self-consistent GW without any vertex correc-
tion, the polarizability e
χ ¼ iGG contains excitations renormalized with a factor
Z2 [118]. As a consequence, screening is reduced and the results are worse in
practice. Furthermore, the resulting polarizability e χ does not obey the f-sum rule
[67]. To summarize, there are theoretical arguments that strongly hint towards the
inclusion of both self-consistency and vertex corrections together [130, 131].
These problems do not appear to be too dramatic for atoms and molecules. For
finite systems, self-consistent GW does not deteriorate G0W0 results [93, 95, 132]
since, in this case, the dynamical effects in Σ are indeed negligible (i.e., Z  1).
However, as far as we are interested in solid-state systems, the full self-consistent
approach appears to be questionable.
Besides these physical problems, the computational cost of self-consistent GW is
very high. The GW self-energy is dynamical: the equations have a frequency
dependence. For instance, the quasiparticle wavefunctions are not eigenvectors of
the same Hamiltonian. The GW self-energy is non-Hermitian: one should distin-
guish left and right eigenvectors and the eigenvalues are complex. As a
Quasiparticle Self-Consistent GW Method for the Spectral Properties. . .

consequence, the “wavefunctions” do not form an orthogonal basis. In summary, a

fully self-consistent GW calculation is a formidable task and one can easily
appreciate why its application to solid-state systems has been so scarce in the
available literature.

4.2 The QSGW Approximation to the GW Self-Energy

A static and Hermitian approximation to the GW self-energy would be devoid of the

issues mentioned in the previous paragraph. This would prevent the spectral weight
from being transferred to the “incoherent part,” then curing most the physical flaws
of the self-consistent GW scheme. Furthermore, it would allow one to have an
orthogonal set of wavefunctions that are eigenvectors of the same (non-local)
Hamiltonian. The computational gain would be massive.
The problem is then to design a static and Hermitian approximation that still
retains the accuracy of the full GW self-energy. Faleev, Kotani, and van
Schilfgaarde made two proposals in their seminal paper of 2004 [71]. One method
was identified as clearly superior to the other: this is the method nowadays named
QSGW. The matrix elements of the self-energy in the QSGW approximation read

  QSGW   1 n  GW      ∗
ψ i Σ ψ j ¼ ψ i Σ ðEi Þψ j þ ψ j ΣGW ðEi Þψ i
4
ð29Þ
  GW      GW   ∗ o
þ ψ i Σ Ej  ψ j þ ψ j  Σ Ej  ψ i :

The QSGW method was later justified as a way to optimize the quasiparticle
Hamiltonian H0 with respect to Δ(ω) ¼ H(ω)  H0, where H(ω) ¼ h0 + VH +
ΣGW(ω) [117]. QSGW is thus a self-consistent perturbation theory where self-
consistency determines the best H0 within the GWA. Here we see that this static
and Hermitian approximation to Σ GW was chosen to conserve the quality of the
diagonal terms. Once self-consistency is achieved, the eigenvalues of H0 coincide
with the (real part of the) poles of GW Green’s function. In fact, at self-consistency
the diagonal terms of the self-energy are precisely evaluated at the self-consistent
quasiparticle energy Ei:

  QSGW   1 n  GW      ∗ o
ψ i Σ ψ i ¼ ψ i Σ ðEi Þψ i þ ψ i Σ GW ðEi Þψ i ð30Þ
2

and the only approximation for these terms is the neglect of the imaginary parts.
Then the calculated quasiparticle band structures should be very similar to the
GW ones.
 F. Bruneval and M. Gatti

4.3 Practical Implementation of the QSGW Method

The extension of an existing G0W0 code into a fully working QSGW code is
straightforward. Instead of only calculating the diagonal matrix elements
  GW  
ψ i Σ ψ i , ð31Þ

the implementation should also allow for i 6¼ j,

  GW  
ψ i Σ ψ j : ð32Þ

Then compared to a simple G0W0 calculation, there is one additional conver-

gence parameter: the extension of the range of states j. Indeed, after diagonalization
of the QSGW Hamiltonian, the quasiparticle wavefunctions are expanded as a linear
combination of Kohn–Sham orbitals:
X  
jΨi i ¼ cji ϕj : ð33Þ
j

The cji coefficients form a unitary matrix, since both the quasiparticle
wavefunctions and the Kohn–Sham wavefunctions form an orthonormal set. The
accuracy of the expansion is of course governed by the flexibility of the basis set,
i.e., the number of Kohn–Sham orbitals included in the right-hand side of (33).
Fortunately, in all practical cases, the number of elements in the linear combination
need not be as large as the original basis set.
Concerning computational time, there are two differences between QSGW and
G0W0. Within QSGW, the GW self-energy has to be evaluated for all states used as a
basis set in (33). For solids, this further implies the need to calculate the self-energy
for all the k-points in the grid. However in practice, the calculation of the self-
energy is often not the limiting step of a QSGW run. This is rather the evaluation of
the dielectric matrix used to construct W. This step is exactly the same for G0W0 and
for QSGW. If this operation dominates the computer time consumption, the QSGW
would be slower that G0W0 simply by the need to iterate the calculation of the
dielectric matrix (typically 3–10 cycles). As a conclusion, the QSGW methods is
roughly one order of magnitude slower than the usual G0W0 approximation for the
most common cases.

4.4 Results

As mentioned earlier in this chapter, the G0W0 approach may experience problems
when the starting point is inadequate. This is particularly true for crystals with very
small or very large band gaps. In the first systematic study of QSGW for crystalline
Quasiparticle Self-Consistent GW Method for the Spectral Properties. . .

Fig. 7 Calculated band gaps compared to experimental band gaps within LDA and G0W0 (left
panel), or within QSGW (right panel). Γ  Γ direct gaps are shown as circles and other gaps as
squares. The perfect agreement would be with all the points along the diagonal. Adapted from
[117]. Copyright 2006, The American Physical Society

systems, van Schilfgaarde et al. [117] demonstrated the deficiencies of G0W0 (left
panel of Fig. 7). The G0W0 band gaps generally slightly underestimate the exper-
imental data.
The QSGW method then brings a clear improvement, as can be appreciated in
the right panel of Fig. 7. For the small band-gap semiconductors, for which LDA
wrongly predicted a metallic band structure, the improvement is spectacular.
Whereas the G0W0 results were still affected by the wrong metallic starting point,
the QSGW band gaps of InAs, InSb, and GaSb are quantitatively correct. For the
large band-gap insulators, the LDA underestimation of the band gap is so dramatic
that once again the G0W0 gaps are strongly affected by the starting point. The
QSGW band gaps of diamond, MgO, CaO, etc., are closer to the experimental
values.
The QSGW has been found to be particularly important for transition metal
oxides such as MnO and NiO [71]. In particular, the elements with a complete
d shell experience an unexpectedly large error in G0W0, as shown in Fig. 7 for ZnO
and Cu2O. For Cu2O it was also shown that QSGW greatly improves both the
photoemission spectroscopy and the optical spectrum [133], as obtained from the
solution of the Bethe–Salpeter equation [14].
In order to judge the performance of an electronic-structure method, one should
always consider more properties than just the band gaps. Indeed, QSGW generally
improves with respect to LDA, as for effective masses and gaps at other critical
points [118]. The bandwidth of Na is narrower in QSGW than in LDA, in agreement
with experiment and with G0W0 (self-consistent GW results on the homogeneous
electron gas, which is a very good approximation to sodium, instead had shown an
increase of the bandwidth [67, 130]). In 3d metals (e.g., Ti, Cr, Fe, Co, Ni), the 3d
 F. Bruneval and M. Gatti

bandwidths, the exchange splittings, and magnetic moments are generally

improved with respect to LDA [117], with some exceptions like Ni and other
systems where LDA already overestimates the magnetic moment, and one expects
that the coupling with spin fluctuations beyond GW should be taken into account
[57]. In addition to spectroscopic data, some ground-state properties can also be
successfully predicted with QSGW, such as electric field gradients [134]. Finally,
QSGW results have also been used as a starting point for other calculations, like
impact ionization rates [135] and the transverse spin susceptibility [136], again
finding good agreement with experiment.
There is still an overall slight overestimation of the band gaps by the QSGW
method, which is systematic in all compounds studied [117, 118]. The accuracy of
QSGW somewhat deteriorates in d and f compounds with respect to sp systems. The
unoccupied states are generally too high: by 0.2 eV for sp semiconductors, less than
1 eV for d0 compounds like SrTiO3 and TiO2, more than 1 eV for other d materials
like NiO, and up to 3 eV for f compounds like Gd and Er [119]. Most often these
errors have been ascribed to the missing electron–hole interactions (excitonic
effects) in the calculation of the polarization e χ and the screened interaction
W, which is done at the RPA level in the GW approximation. The dielectric
constants turn out to be too small (by ~20%) [117], resulting in a slight
underscreening and, in turn, into too large gaps. Indeed, van Schilfgaarde and
coworkers empirically found that by rescaling by 0.8 the screened interaction
W, the results were improved (see, e.g., [123, 124, 137]). This tendency was later
confirmed by Shishkin et al. [138], who corrected the remaining error with the
inclusion of electron-hole interaction in W using the Nanoquanta kernel of time-
dependent density-functional theory [139]. These observations mean that vertex
corrections in Σ – see (13f)] – would play a secondary role in a large variety of
materials. However, for example, the localized d band in the occupied valence band
of materials like GaAs, GaN, and GaP, which is slightly too shallow, cannot be
corrected by this simple rescaling that corrects the QSGW underscreening. A more
detailed investigation of the effects of vertex corrections beyond GW is thus still an
open issue.
Of course, not all the features of the full GW self-energy can be retained in
QSGW. The simplicity has a price. Being a quasiparticle-only theory, all the
properties beyond quasiparticles are naturally absent in QSGW. For instance, the
satellites in the photoemission spectra of correlated [57] and non-correlated [56]
materials are no longer accessible. The finite lifetimes of quasiparticles [58] are also
beyond QSGW. A way to overcome this limitation is to use the QSGW results at
self-consistency as a starting point to calculate the Green’s function in the GW
approximation and hence the spectral function, as has been done recently for
SrVO3 [107].
The QSGW has mostly been applied to solids. Nowadays, the first applications to
atoms and molecules are being carried out by several groups. Bruneval [34] first
applied QSGW to the ionization potential of small sodium clusters. Then Ke [140]
demonstrated the improvement of QSGW compared to G0W0 based on Hartree–
Fock for the conjugated molecules (CnHm) for electron affinities and ionization
Quasiparticle Self-Consistent GW Method for the Spectral Properties. . .

0.7 1.3
0.6 1.2
0.5 1.1
0.4 1.0
0.3 0.9
0.2 0.8

Error wrt Expt. (eV)

Error wrt Expt. (eV)

0.7
0.1 H He Li Be B C N O F Ne Na Mg Al Si P S Cl Ar
0.0 0.6
-0.1 0.5
-0.2 0.4
-0.3 0.3
-0.4 0.2
-0.5 0.1
-0.6 0.0
HF MAE = 0.46 eV + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
-0.7
GW@HF MAE = 0.27 eV
-0.1 H He Li Be B C N O F Ne Na Mg Al Si P S Cl Ar
-0.8 QSGW MAE = 0.18 eV -0.2 HF MAE = 1.74 eV
GW@HF MAE = 0.43 eV
-0.9 -0.3
QSGW MAE = 0.34 eV
-1.0 -0.4

Fig. 8 Deviation from the experimental ionization potential of atoms as obtained from the HOMO
of the neutral atoms (left panel) or from the LUMO of the positive ions (right panel), i.e., EHOMO/
LUMO  (I ). HF is presented with open bars, G0W0 based on HF inputs (GW@HF) with striped
bars, and QSGW with filled bars. The mean absolute error (MAE) is also provided. Reprinted with
permission from [141]. Copyright 2012, American Institute of Physics

potentials. More recently, Bruneval [141] investigated its performance for all the
light atoms from H to Ar. As shown in Fig. 8, the improvement offered by QSGW is
not systematic. On average QSGW performs better than G0W0 based on HF with a
relatively smaller mean absolute error, although for specific atoms the opposite can
hold true. Note that the error in the LUMO of the positive ion (right panel) remains
rather large even for QSGW. Of course, the application of QSGW to molecules is
still in its early stage and its performance has to be evaluated for a wider range of
molecules, especially for large molecules.

5 Relation with Alternative Self-Consistent Schemes

Although the QSGW method is a simplified version of the full self-consistent GW

self-energy, the calculations may still be quite cumbersome. Many authors resort to
even more approximated types of self-consistency. This section briefly describes
the alternatives to QSGW.

5.1 Energy-Only Self-Consistency

In the energy-only self-consistent GW scheme, the eigenvalues used to build G and

W are updated iteratively, while the wavefunctions are kept at the level of the mean-
field starting point. This scheme corresponds to keeping only the diagonal terms of
the QSGW Hamiltonian. Thus whenever the mean-field orbitals are a good approx-
imation to QP wavefunctions, the two schemes will give very similar results. Of
 F. Bruneval and M. Gatti

Fig. 9 Comparison of band

gaps calculated in GGA
(PBE), G0W0, and GW0,
with experiment for a series
of prototypical sp
semiconductors and
insulators. GW0 performs
best. From [145]. Copyright
2007, The American
Physical Society

course, the energy-only self-consistent GW is computationally much cheaper than

QSGW.
This scheme has been used many times in the past [83, 142–145] in order to
improve band gaps and band widths with respect to G0W0 results. Recently,
Shishkin and Kresse [145] presented a systematic study of the band gap of several
sp semiconductors and insulators. The conclusion of their analysis is that updating
the eigenvalues in G while keeping W at the GGA level (the scheme is called GW0)
gives the best results in comparison to experiment (see Fig. 9). This is due to a
cancellation of effects between the band-gap opening and excitonic interactions in
W that is verified in the class of materials considered in [145]. In turn, the GGA
screening is in better agreement with the physical one (i.e., the one that can be
measured by loss spectroscopies) than the screening calculated self-consistently. In
fact, updating the eigenvalues in W also leads to an underscreening and further
opens the gaps, causing the results to deteriorate [145]. Similar conclusions can be
reached in finite systems. For instance, Blase and coworkers [94, 146] recently
found that in a set of organic molecules and DNA/RNA nucleobases the energy-
only self-consistent GW scheme provides much better results than G0W0 on top of
LDA.

5.2 Alternatives to the QSGW: COHSEX and Others

COHSEX is a static and Hermitian approximation to the GW self-energy (see

Sect. 2.4). In this respect it parallels the self-energy of the QSGW approximation.
Quasiparticle Self-Consistent GW Method for the Spectral Properties. . .

The difference between the two approximations is the fact that in COHSEX the
screening is static (i.e., it is calculated only at ω ¼ 0), while it is fully dynamical in
QSGW.
Bruneval, Vast, and Reining [112] proposed to combine self-consistent
COHSEX with a subsequent G0W0 calculation, giving very similar results to
QSGW [112, 133] at a much lower computational cost. In fact, in COHSEX both
the calculations of the screening (only static) and the self-energy (depending only
on occupied states) are cheaper than in GW. COHSEX alone generally overesti-
mates band gaps and dynamical effects contained in the GW self-energy are needed
to correct this overestimation. In many cases a perturbative G0W0 correction is
sufficient, while, for example, in prototypical transition metal oxides like NiO and
MnO, a self-consistent update of the eigenvalues is needed to get results similar to
QSGW [147, Gatti and Rubio (2013) Unpublished].
The COHSEX+ G0W0 scheme has been successfully applied in a wide range of
materials: from transition metal compounds (e.g., Cu2O, VO2, NiS2xSex [105, 126,
133]) to CIGS and quaternary chalcogenides [120, 125, 148], delafossite transpar-
ent conductive oxides [121, 149], and intermediate-band materials [150, 151].
In an earlier work, Gygi and Baldereschi derived a simplified model static self-
energy from the GW approximation [152] that was later used in a self-consistent
manner in several transition metal oxides (e.g., MnO, NiO, CaCuO2, and VO2
[153–155]). These applications employed a model screened interaction W in which
the static dielectric constant was a parameter taken from experiment. Nevertheless,
together with the work of Aryasetiawan and Gunnarsson on NiO [156], in which the
self-consistency was simulated by adding to LDA a static correction term for the
Ni eg bands, they provided the first meaningful GW descriptions of these transition
metal oxides beyond the G0W0 scheme.
More recently, Sakuma, Miyake, and Aryasetiawan have proposed an alternative
self-consistent quasiparticle scheme that is based on Löwdin’s method of symmet-
ric orthogonalization [157]. Results have been found to be very close to those in the
QSGW scheme.

5.3 Hybrid Functionals and LDA+U

Hybrid functionals [158] and the LDA+U approach [159] have become very
popular as improved exchange-correlation DFT functionals in solids. At the same
time, both can be seen as an approximation to the GW self-energy [160, 161]. In
hybrids like the Heyd–Scuseria–Ernzerhof (HSE) functional [158] the α and
ω parameters, which are obtained by considerations of the adiabatic-connection
formula and numerically fitting the results against a benchmark set of data, play the
role of effective screening. In LDA+U the on-site Hubbard U correction is only
applied to a subset of states (and a double-counting correction is introduced). The
electron–electron local interaction is treated at the Hartree–Fock level and the
screening of the interaction is effectively obtained by reducing U from its atomic
 F. Bruneval and M. Gatti

Fig. 10 Comparison of
band gaps calculated in
GGA (PBE), HSE and
G0W0 on top of them with
experiment for a series of
prototypical sp
semiconductors and
insulators. HSE is a better
starting point than GGA.
From [102]. Copyright ©
2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag
GmbH & Co. KGaA,
Weinheim

values. The Hubbard U can be pragmatically used as fitting parameter or calculated

for example in RPA: in this case all the electrons not belonging to the chosen subset
of states are then providing the effective screening of U [162]. The common effect
of both hybrid functionals and LDA+U is to produce, as a result of an exchange
effect, a localization of the LDA orbitals that for d and f electrons are generally too
delocalized.
Even though both methods depend on parameters, they can be seen as a cheap
way to perform self-consistent quasiparticle calculations. In fact, in recent years
they have been proposed as an improved starting point for subsequent G0W0
calculations. In particular, Rödl and coworkers [163–165] have shown that in
prototypical transition metal oxides it is possible to fit the more expensive HSE
results from GGA+U calculations with an additional scissor shift, producing results
in good agreement with experiments. The application of these computationally
efficient schemes is also gaining quite a large popularity in the GW community (see,
e.g., [99–101, 122, 163–173] and [102] for an early review; Fig. 10 contains a
collection of results from the latter).
Besides the presence of parameters, the most important drawback with respect to
QSGW is their limited transferability, which is restricted by the limited flexibility of
their description of the screening of the Coulomb interaction (which in GW is
explicitly accounted for). This can become an important issue in situations where
the screening is substantially changing as a function of an external control param-
eter: for example, in the study of metal-insulator transitions under pressure
[Gatti and Rubio (2013) Unpublished] and for materials characterized by a strong
interplay between structure and electronic properties such as the CIGS [120]. In
these cases QSGW is expected to be better (also with respect to G0W0).
Quasiparticle Self-Consistent GW Method for the Spectral Properties. . .

6 Conclusions and Outlook

The present chapter aimed at presenting the robustness and the simplicity of the
QSGW when addressing the spectral properties of materials. The QSGW method is
nowadays a mature theory that offers a remarkable trade-off between speed and
accuracy.
It has been applied to an impressively wide variety of materials, covering the
range from sodium [113] to uranium and plutonium [174, 175], and including
metals, semi-conductors, insulators, atoms, and molecules. The comparison to
experiment is in general very favorable. Therefore, in our opinion, QSGW is, to
date, the best ab initio method available to calculate the quasiparticle spectrum of
photoemission (and inverse photoemission) for solid state systems and can be
thought of as a predictive theory.
Furthermore, QSGW is readily available in popular codes, such as Abinit [176]
or Vasp [177]. On the other hand, the increasing popularity of the method nowadays
goes hand in hand with the need for optimizing the computational algorithms, in
order to prevent slow convergence in the self-consistency (see, e.g., [178]).
The QSGW method has enlarged the range of compounds that can be described
by the GW approximation. It has demonstrated that, for materials for which G0W0
was performing badly and thus considered out of reach for ab initio methods
(e.g. “strongly correlated” transition metal oxides), the failure was to be ascribed
to the perturbative scheme of G0W0, and not to the GW approximation itself [71].
QSGW has provided an accurate reference from which it now makes sense to
investigate more refined features of the electronic structure of materials, such as
electron–phonon coupling [61, 62] and lattice polarization [179], which now are
larger than the error bar of the method. Analogously, the field is now ready to study
effects of electron interaction beyond the GW approximation (i.e., vertex correc-
tions, for example, through the coupling with other approximations), without the
bias that the perturbative G0W0 scheme introduces.

Acknowledgments We thank Mark van Schilfgaarde for a critical reading of the chapter.

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