  We present a method for the calculation of photoemission spectra in terms of
reduced density matrices. We start from the spectral representation of the
one-body Green's function G, whose imaginary part is related to photoemission
spectra, and we introduce a frequency-dependent effective energy that accounts
for all the poles of G. Simple approximations to this effective energy give
accurate spectra in model systems in the weak as well as strong correlation
regime. In real systems reduced density matrices can be obtained from reduced
density-matrix functional theory. Here we use this approach to calculate the
photoemission spectrum of bulk NiO: our method yields a qualitatively correct
picture both in the antiferromagnetic and paramagnetic phases, contrary to
mean-field methods, in which the paramagnet is a metal.
