Coulomb correlated band structure and Fermi surfaces of high T_c superconductors

Predictions of local density functional (LDF) calculations of the electronic structure and transport properties of high T_c superconductors are reviewed. As evidenced by the excellent agreement with both photoemission and positron annihilation experiments, the Fermi liquid nature of the 'normal' state of the high T_c superconductors becomes clear for these oxides. The remaining anomalous features in the observed photoemission experiments are related to the effect of Coulomb correlations on the electronic structure, which is determined by empolying the many-body corrections to the known band structure. The results of the tight-binding fit to the Fermi surfaces (FS) in high T_c Cu-oxides indicate that the commonly used model Hamiltonian with only a nearest-neighbor hopping is not sufficient for the description of the Cu-O dpσ anti-bonding band crossing E_F. Anisotropies of the FS are discussed in connection with the normal state transport properties, which are in qualitative agreement with experiment.