On the error of approximations in quantum mechanics. I. General theory

Abstract
General formulas for estimating the errors in quantum-mechanical calculations are given in the formalism of density matrices. Some properties of the traces of matrices are used to simplify the estimating and to indicate a way of obtaining a better approximation. It is shown that the simultaneous correction of all the equations to be fulfilled leads in most cases to a faster convergence than the exact fulfilment of some of the equations and approximating stepwise to some of the others. The corrective formulas contain only direct operations of the matrices occurring and so they are advantageous in computer applications. In the last section a ‘subjective error’ definition is given and by taking into account the weight of the errors of the several equations a faster convergence and a single error quantity is obtained. Some special applications of the method will be published later.

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