Analytical energy gradients in second-order Mo/ller–Plesset perturbation theory for extended systems

Perspective on Coupled-cluster Theory. The evolution toward simplicity in quantum chemistry

Coupled-cluster theory has revolutionized quantum chemistry. It has provided the framework to effectively solve the problem of electron correlation, the main focus of the field for over 60 years. This has enabled ab initio quantum chemistry to provide predictive quality results for most quantities of interest that are obtainable from first-principle calculations. The best that one can do in a basis is the 'full CI,' the exact solution of the non-relativistic Schrödinger equation or, if need be, the relativistic Dirac equation. With due regard to converging the basis set and adequate consideration of higher clusters and relativity in a calculation, virtually predictive results can be obtained. But in addition to its numerical performance, coupled-cluster theory also offers a conceptually new, many-body foundation for the theory that should be appreciated by all practitioners. The latter is emphasized in this perspective, leading to the 'evolution toward simplicity' in the title. The ultimate theory will benefit from the several features that are uniquely exact in coupled-cluster theory and its equation-of-motion (EOM-CC) extensions.

Modeling Polymorphic Molecular Crystals with Electronic Structure Theory

Interest in molecular crystals has grown thanks to their relevance to pharmaceuticals, organic semiconductor materials, foods, and many other applications. Electronic structure methods have become an increasingly important tool for modeling molecular crystals and polymorphism. This article reviews electronic structure techniques used to model molecular crystals, including periodic density functional theory, periodic second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory, fragment-based electronic structure methods, and diffusion Monte Carlo. It also discusses the use of these models for predicting a variety of crystal properties that are relevant to the study of polymorphism, including lattice energies, structures, crystal structure prediction, polymorphism, phase diagrams, vibrational spectroscopies, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Finally, tools for analyzing crystal structures and intermolecular interactions are briefly discussed.

How Much Can Density Functional Approximations (DFA) Fail? The Extreme Case of the FeO4 Species

A thorough theoretical study of the relative energies of various molecular Fe·4O isomers with different oxidation states of both Fe and O atoms is presented, comparing simple Hartree-Fock through many Kohn-Sham approximations up to extended coupled cluster and DMRG multiconfiguration benchmark methods. The ground state of Fe·4O is a singlet, hexavalent iron(VI) complex (1)C2v-[Fe(VI)O2](2+)(O2)(2-), with isomers of oxidation states Fe(II), Fe(III), Fe(IV), Fe(V), and Fe(VIII) all lying slightly higher within the range of 1 eV. The disputed existence of oxidation state Fe(VIII) is discussed for isolated FeO4 molecules. Density functional theory (DFT) at various DF approximation (DFA) levels of local and gradient approaches, Hartree-Fock exchange and meta hybrids, range dependent, DFT-D and DFT+U models do not perform better for the relative stabilities of the geometric and electronic Fe·4O isomers than within 1-5 eV. The Fe·4O isomeric species are an excellent testing and validation ground for the development of density functional and wave function methods for strongly correlated multireference states, which do not seem to always follow chemical intuition.

Coupled-cluster singles and doubles for extended systems

Coupled-cluster theory with connected single and double excitation operators (CCSD) and related approximations, such as linearized CCSD, quadratic configuration interaction with single and double excitation operators, coupled-cluster with connected double excitation operator (CCD), linearized CCD, approximate CCD, and second- and third-order many-body perturbation theories, are formulated and implemented for infinitely extended one-dimensional systems (polymers), on the basis of the periodic boundary conditions and distance-based screening of integrals, density matrix elements, and excitation amplitudes. The variation of correlation energies with the truncation radii of short- and long-range lattice sums and with the number of wave vector sampling points in the first Brillouin zone is examined for polyethylene, polyacetylene, and polyyne, and is shown to be a function of the degree of pi-electron conjugation or the fundamental band gaps. The t2 and t1 amplitudes in the atomic orbital (AO) basis are obtained by first computing the t amplitudes in the Bloch-orbital basis and subsequently back-transforming them into the AO basis. The plot of these AO-based t amplitudes as a function of unit cells also indicates that the t2 amplitudes of polyacetylene and polyyne exhibit appreciably slower decay than those of polyethylene, although the asymptotic decay behavior is invariably 1/r3. The AO-based t1 amplitudes appear to correlate strongly with the electronic structure, and they decay seemingly exponentially for polyethylene whereas they stay at a constant magnitude across the seventh nearest neighbors of polyacetylene and polyyne, which attests to far reaching effects of nondynamical electron correlation mediated by orbital rotation. Nonetheless, the unit cell contributions to the correlation energies taper below 10(-6) hartree after 15 A for all three polymers. The basis set dependence of the decay behavior of t2 amplitudes is also examined for linear hydrogen fluoride polymer (HF)infinity and linear beryllium polymer (Be)infinity employing the STO-3G, 6-31G, and 6-31G* basis sets, and proves to be rather small.

Importance of chain–chain interactions on the band gap of trans-polyacetylene as predicted by second-order perturbation theory

We employ the Laplace-transformed second-order Moller-Plesset perturbation theory for periodic systems in its atomic orbital basis formulation to determine the geometric structure and band gap of interacting polyacetylene chains. We have studied single, double, and triple chains, and also two-dimensional crystals. We estimate from first principles the equilibrium interchain distance and setting angle, along with binding energy between trans-polyacetylene chains due to dispersion interactions. The dependence of the correlation corrected quasiparticle band gap on the intrachain and interchain geometric parameters is studied, obtaining that the gap of the compound structures is substantially reduced with respect to the single chain polymer.

Integral algorithm and density matrix integration scheme for ab initio band structure calculations on polymeric systems

A new program for band structure calculations of periodic one-dimensional systems has been constructed. It is distinguishable from other codes by the efficient two-electron integral evaluation and the integration schemes of the density matrix in the first Brillouin zone. The computation of polymeric two-electron integrals is based on the McMurchie Davidson algorithm and builds batches of the different cell indices included in the polymeric system. Consequently it presents efficient scaling with respect to the number of unit cells taken into account. Our algorithm takes into account fully the polymeric symmetry rather than the molecular symmetry. A semidirect procedure where only exchange integrals are computed at each SCF cycle is proposed in order to maintain balance between computation time and disk space. In addition, the integration of the density matrix over a large number of cell indices can be performed by different methods, such as Gauss-Legendre, Clenshaw-Curtis, Filon, and Alaylioglu-Evans-Hyslop. This last scheme is able to obtain an accuracy of 10(-13) a.u. on each individual density matrix element for all cell indices with only 48 k-points.