Term information
In computational physics and chemistry, the Hartree Fock (HF) method is an approximate method for the determination of the ground-state wave function and ground-state energy of a quantum many-body system. The Hartree Fock method assumes that the exact, N-body wave function of the system can be approximated by a single Slater determinant (in the case where the particles are fermions) or by a single permanent (in the case of bosons) of N spin-orbitals. By invoking the variational principle, one can derive a set of N-coupled equations for the N spin orbitals. Solution of these equations yields the Hartree Fock wave function and energy of the system, which are approximations of the exact ones. source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartree%E2%80%93Fock_method