The Generalized Resonating Valence Bond Description of Cyclobutadiene

The low-lying electronic states of square and rectangular cyclobutadiene (CBD) are calculated by using the generalized resonating valence bond (GRVB) method and compared with the results from Hartree-Fock and configuration interaction wavefunctions. We find that simple valence bond concepts correctly predict the sequence of excited states (including ground-state singlet) and the distortion to a rectangular geometry for the ground state. Contrary to common expectation, we find that the singlet ground state of square CBD has 22 kcal of resonance energy (relative to a single valence bond structure). Thus, CBD is not antiresonant, though it is much less stable than normal conjugated systems.