Title: correlation energy Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - correlation energy DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.C01349 Status: current Definition The difference between the Hartree–Fock energy calculated for a system and the exact non-relativistic energy of that system. The correlation energy arises from the approximate representation of the electron-electron repulsions in the Hartree–Fock method. Related Term - Hartree: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/H02747 Source - PAC, 1996, 68, 2223. 'Glossary of terms used in photochemistry (IUPAC Recommendations 1996)' on page 2234 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac199668122223) Other Outputs - html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/C01349/html - json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/C01349/json - xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/C01349/xml Citation: Citation: 'correlation energy' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.C01349 License: The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms. Collection: If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org . Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using. Accessed: 2026-06-30T13:03:24+00:00