The single-particle function \( \psi_{\alpha}(x_i) \) are eigenfunctions of the onebody Hamiltonian \( h_i \), that is $$ \hat{h}_0(x_i)=\hat{t}(x_i) + \hat{u}_{\mathrm{ext}}(x_i), $$ with eigenvalues $$ \hat{h}_0(x_i) \psi_{\alpha}(x_i)=\left(\hat{t}(x_i) + \hat{u}_{\mathrm{ext}}(x_i)\right)\psi_{\alpha}(x_i)=\varepsilon_{\alpha}\psi_{\alpha}(x_i). $$ The energies \( \varepsilon_{\alpha} \) are the so-called non-interacting single-particle energies, or unperturbed energies. The total energy is in this case the sum over all single-particle energies, if no two-body or more complicated many-body interactions are present.