What is Hartree–Fock method, Fock operator, self-consistent field?

The Hartree–Fock method approximates the ground state by the single Slater determinant of lowest energy. Its orbitals are eigenfunctions of the Fock operator

in the closed-shell case: $\hat h$ is the kinetic energy and attraction to the nuclei of one electron, $\hat J_b$ the repulsion by the charge cloud of orbital $b$, and $\hat K_b$ the exchange operator, whose expectation values are the exchange integrals of Chapter 2. Since $\hat f$ depends on the orbitals it determines, the equations are solved by iteration until the orbitals no longer change: a self-consistent field (SCF).