  A generating coordinate is introduced into the exchange-correlation
functional of density-functional theory (DFT). The many-body wave function is
represented as a superposition of Kohn-Sham (KS) Slater determinants arising
from different values of the generating coordinate. This superposition is used
to variationally calculate many-body energies and wave functions from solutions
of the KS equation of DFT. The method works for ground and excited states, and
does not depend on identifying the KS orbitals and energies with physical ones.
Numerical application to the Helium isoelectronic series illustrates the
method's viability and potential.
