AB-INITIO LCAO CALCULATIONS OF SMALL HELIUM CLUSTERS

He clusters represent an anomalous case in the field of nanosized stru ctures owing to the extremely low value of the temperature of the liqu id phase in bulk helium. The weak dissipative forces which hold these clusters together offer a severe benchmark for calculations of all typ es. Owing to the interest in phenomena of superfluidity and supercondu ctivity, calculation methods, optimized from either the computational or the mathematical point of view, are the object of very intensive ef forts. In this study we report calculations of the structure and energ etics of small He clusters obtained by using a LCAO method of the ab i nitio type with simple trial functions of the gaussian type. The resul ts indicate that the cluster structure is correctly predicted, though deep spurious minima in the energy potential surface are also found.