  The structural parameters and electronic structure of rare-earth pnictides
are calculated using density functional theory (DFT) with the Heyd, Scuseria,
and Ernzerhof (HSE06) screened hybrid functional. We focus on RE-V compounds,
with RE=La, Gd, Er, and Lu, and V=As, Sb, and Bi, and analyze the effects of
spin-orbit coupling and treating the RE 4$f$ electrons as valence electrons in
the projector augmented wave approach. The results of HSE06 calculations are
compared with DFT within the generalized gradient approximation (DFT-GGA) and
other previous calculations. We find that all these RE-V compounds are
semimetals with electron pockets at the $X$ point and hole pockets at $\Gamma$.
Whereas in DFT-GGA the carrier density is significantly overestimated, the
computed carrier densities using HSE06 is in good agreement with the available
experimental data.
