Efficient distance-including integral screening in linear-scaling Møller-Plesset perturbation theory

State-of-the-art local correlation methods enable affordable gold standard quantum chemistry for up to hundreds of atoms

In this feature, we review the current capabilities of local electron correlation methods up to the coupled cluster model with single, double, and perturbative triple excitations [CCSD(T)], which is a gold standard in quantum chemistry. The main computational aspects of the local method types are assessed from the perspective of applications, but the focus is kept on how to achieve chemical accuracy (i.e., <1 kcal mol-1 uncertainty), as well as on the broad scope of chemical problems made accessible. The performance of state-of-the-art methods is also compared, including the most employed DLPNO and, in particular, our local natural orbital (LNO) CCSD(T) approach. The high accuracy and efficiency of the LNO method makes chemically accurate CCSD(T) computations accessible for molecules of hundreds of atoms with resources affordable to a broad computational community (days on a single CPU and 10-100 GB of memory). Recent developments in LNO-CCSD(T) enable systematic convergence and robust error estimates even for systems of complicated electronic structure or larger size (up to 1000 atoms). The predictive power of current local CCSD(T) methods, usually at about 1-2 order of magnitude higher cost than hybrid density functional theory (DFT), has become outstanding on the palette of computational chemistry applicable for molecules of practical interest. We also review more than 50 LNO-based and other advanced local-CCSD(T) applications for realistic, large systems across molecular interactions as well as main group, transition metal, bio-, and surface chemistry. The examples show that properly executed local-CCSD(T) can contribute to binding, reaction equilibrium, rate constants, etc. which are able to match measurements within the error estimates. These applications demonstrate that modern, open-access, and broadly affordable local methods, such as LNO-CCSD(T), already enable predictive computations and atomistic insight for complicated, real-life molecular processes in realistic environments.

Analytic Gradients for Density Fitting MP2 Using Natural Auxiliary Functions

The natural auxiliary function (NAF) approach is an approximation to decrease the size of the auxiliary basis set required for quantum chemical calculations utilizing the density fitting technique. It has been proven efficient to speed up various correlation models, such as second-order Møller-Plesset (MP2) theory and coupled-cluster methods. Here, for the first time, we discuss the theory of analytic derivatives for correlation methods employing the NAF approximation on the example of MP2. A detailed algorithm for the gradient calculation with the NAF approximation is proposed in the framework of the method of Lagrange multipliers. To assess the effect of the NAF approximation on gradients and optimized geometric parameters, a series of benchmark calculations on small and medium-sized systems was performed. Our results demonstrate that, for MP2, sufficiently accurate gradients and geometries can be achieved with a moderate time reduction of 15-20% for both small and medium-sized molecules.

A perspective on the future of quantum chemical software: the example of the ORCA program package

The field of computational chemistry has made an impressive impact on contemporary chemical research. In order to carry out computational studies on actual systems, sophisticated software is required in form of large-scale quantum chemical program packages. Given the enormous diversity and complexity of the methods that need to be implementation in such packages, it is evident that these software pieces are very large (millions of code lines) and extremely complex. Most of the packages in widespread use by the computational chemistry community have had a development history of decades. Given the rapid progress in the hardware and a lack of resources (time, workforce, money), it is not possible to keep redesigning these program packages from scratch in order to keep up with the ever more quickly shifting hardware landscape. In this perspective, some aspects of the multitude of challenges that the developer community faces are discussed. While the task at hand - to ensure that quantum chemical program packages can keep evolving and make best use of the available hardware - is daunting, there are also new evolving opportunities. The problems and potential cures are discussed with the example of the ORCA package that has been developed in our research group.

Improved CPS and CBS Extrapolation of PNO-CCSD(T) Energies: The MOBH35 and ISOL24 Data Sets

Computation of heats of reaction of large molecules is now feasible using the domain-based pair natural orbital (PNO)-coupled-cluster singles, doubles, and perturbative triples [CCSD(T)] theory. However, to obtain agreement within 1 kcal/mol of experiment, it is necessary to eliminate basis set incompleteness error, which comprises both the AO basis set error and the PNO truncation error. Our investigation into the convergence to the canonical limit of PNO-CCSD(T) energies with the PNO truncation threshold T shows that errors follow the model E ( T ) = E + A T 1 / 2 . Therefore, PNO truncation errors can be eliminated using a simple two-point CPS extrapolation to the canonical limit so that subsequent CBS extrapolation is not limited by the residual PNO truncation error. Using the ISOL24 and MOBH35 data sets, we find that PNO truncation errors are larger for molecules with significant static correlation and that it is necessary to use very tight thresholds of T = 10 - 8 to ensure that errors do not exceed 1 kcal/mol. We present a lower-cost extrapolation scheme that uses information from small basis sets to estimate the PNO truncation errors for larger basis sets. In this way, the canonical limit of CCSD(T) calculations on sizable molecules with large basis sets can be reliably estimated in a practical way. Using this approach, we report near complete basis set (CBS)-CCSD(T) reaction energies for the full ISOL24 and MOBH35 data sets.

Further investigations into a Laplace MP2 method using range separated Coulomb potential and orbital selective virtuals: Multipole correction, OSV extrapolation, and critical assessment

We report further investigations to aid the development of a Laplace MP2 (second-order Møller Plesset) method with a range separated Coulomb potential partitioned into short- and long-range parts. The implementation of the method extensively uses sparse matrix algebra, density fitting techniques for the short-range part, and a Fourier transformation in spherical coordinates for the long-range part of the potential. Localized molecular orbitals are employed for the occupied space, whereas virtual space is described by orbital specific virtual orbitals (OSVs) associated with localized molecular orbitals. The Fourier transform is deficient for very large distances between localized occupied orbitals, and a multipole expansion for widely separated pairs is introduced for the direct MP2 contribution, which is applicable also to non-Coulombic potentials that do not satisfy the Laplace equation. For the exchange contribution, an efficient screening of contributing localized occupied pairs is employed, which is discussed more completely here. To mitigate errors due to the truncation of OSVs, a simple and efficient extrapolation procedure is used to obtain results close to MP2 for the full basis set of atomic orbitals Using a suitable set of default parameters, the accuracy of the approach is demonstrated. The current implementation of the approach is not very efficient, and the aim of this paper is to introduce and critically discuss ideas that can have more general applicability beyond MP2 calculations for large molecules.

Sparsity of the electron repulsion integral tensor using different localized virtual orbital representations in local second-order Møller-Plesset theory

Utilizing localized orbitals, local correlation theory can reduce the unphysically high system-size scaling of post-Hartree-Fock (post-HF) methods to linear scaling in insulating molecules. The sparsity of the four-index electron repulsion integral (ERI) tensor is central to achieving this reduction. For second-order Møller-Plesset theory (MP2), one of the simplest post-HF methods, only the (ia|jb) ERIs are needed, coupling occupied orbitals i, j and virtuals a, b. In this paper, we compare the numerical sparsity (called the "ragged list") and two other approaches revealing the low-rank sparsity of the ERI. The ragged list requires only one set of (localized) virtual orbitals, and we find that the orthogonal valence virtual-hard virtual set of virtuals originally proposed by Subotnik et al. gives the sparsest ERI tensor. To further compress the ERI tensor, the pair natural orbital (PNO) type representation uses different sets of virtual orbitals for different occupied orbital pairs, while the occupied-specific virtual (OSV) approach uses different virtuals for each occupied orbital. Our results indicate that while the low-rank PNO representation achieves significant rank reduction, it also requires more memory than the ragged list. The OSV approach requires similar memory to that of the ragged list, but it involves greater algorithmic complexity. An approximation (called the "fixed sparsity pattern") for solving the local MP2 equations using the numerically sparse ERI tensor is proposed and tested to be sufficiently accurate and to have highly controllable error. A low-scaling local MP2 algorithm based on the ragged list and the fixed sparsity pattern is therefore promising.

Avoiding Negligible Shell Pairs and Quartets in Electronic Structure Calculations

We define a significant shell pair in an electronic structure calculation as one that generates at least one two-electron integral larger than a preset threshold. We define a significant shell quartet similarly. We then explore several methods for identifying nonsignificant pairs and quartets so that they can be avoided and computational efficiency improved. We find that the widely used Cauchy-Schwarz bound identifies most nonsignificant quartets but that the Hölder bound is slightly more powerful for identifying nonsignificant pairs.

An effective sub-quadratic scaling atomic-orbital reformulation of the scaled opposite-spin RI-CC2 ground-state model using Cholesky-decomposed densities and an attenuated Coulomb metric

An atomic-orbital reformulation of the Laplace-transformed scaled opposite-spin (SOS) coupled cluster singles and doubles (CC2) model within the resolution of the identity (RI) approximation (SOS-RI-CC2) is presented that extends its applicability to molecules with several hundreds of atoms and triple-zeta basis sets. We exploit sparse linear algebra and an attenuated Coulomb metric to decrease the disk space demands and the computational efforts. In this way, an effective sub-quadratic computational scaling is achieved with our ω-SOS-CDD-RI-CC2 model. Moreover, Cholesky decomposition of the ground-state one-electron density matrix reduces the prefactor, allowing for an early crossover with the molecular orbital formulation. The accuracy and performance of the presented method are investigated for various molecular systems.

Efficient low-scaling computation of NMR shieldings at the second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory level with Cholesky-decomposed densities and an attenuated Coulomb metric

A method for the computation of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) shieldings with second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2) is presented which allows to efficiently compute the entire set of shieldings for a given molecular structure. The equations are derived using Laplace-transformed atomic orbital second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory as a starting point. The Z-vector approach is employed for minimizing the number of coupled-perturbed self-consistent-field equations that need to be solved. In addition, the method uses the resolution-of-the-identity approximation with an attenuated Coulomb metric and Cholesky decomposition of pseudo-density matrices. The sparsity in the three-center integrals is exploited with sparse linear algebra approaches, leading to reduced computational cost and memory demands. Test calculations show that the deviations from NMR shifts obtained with canonical MP2 are small if appropriate thresholds are used. The performance of the method is illustrated in calculations on DNA strands and on glycine chains with up to 283 atoms and 2864 basis functions.

Toward Laplace MP2 method using range separated Coulomb potential and orbital selective virtuals

We report the development of a new Laplace MP2 (second-order Møller-Plesset) implementation using a range separated Coulomb potential, partitioned into short- and long-range parts. The implementation heavily relies on the use of sparse matrix algebra, density fitting techniques for the short-range Coulomb interactions, while a Fourier transformation in spherical coordinates is used for the long-range part of the potential. Localized molecular orbitals are employed for the occupied space, whereas orbital specific virtual orbitals associated with localized molecular orbitals are obtained from the exchange matrix associated with specific localized occupied orbitals. The range separated potential is crucial to achieve efficient treatment of the direct term in the MP2, while extensive screening is employed to reduce the expense of the exchange contribution in MP2. The focus of this paper is on controllable accuracy and linear scaling of the data entering the algorithm.

Tight distance-dependent estimators for screening two-center and three-center short-range Coulomb integrals over Gaussian basis functions

We derive distance-dependent estimators for two-center and three-center electron repulsion integrals over a short-range Coulomb potential, erfc(ωr12)/r12. These estimators are much tighter than the ones based on the Schwarz inequality and can be viewed as a complement to the distance-dependent estimators for four-center short-range Coulomb integrals and for two-center and three-center full Coulomb integrals previously reported. Because the short-range Coulomb potential is commonly used in solid-state calculations, including those with the Heyd-Scuseria-Ernzerhof functional and with our recently introduced range-separated periodic Gaussian density fitting, we test our estimators on a diverse set of periodic systems using a wide range of the range-separation parameter ω. These tests demonstrate the robust tightness of our estimators, which are then used with integral screening to calculate periodic three-center short-range Coulomb integrals with linear scaling in system size.

DLPNO-MP2 second derivatives for the computation of polarizabilities and NMR shieldings

We present a derivation and efficient implementation of the formally complete analytic second derivatives for the domain-based local pair natural orbital second order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2) method, applicable to electric or magnetic field-response properties but not yet to harmonic frequencies. We also discuss the occurrence and avoidance of numerical instability issues related to singular linear equation systems and near linear dependences in the projected atomic orbital domains. A series of benchmark calculations on medium-sized systems is performed to assess the effect of the local approximation on calculated nuclear magnetic resonance shieldings and the static dipole polarizabilities. Relative deviations from the resolution of the identity-based MP2 (RI-MP2) reference for both properties are below 0.5% with the default truncation thresholds. For large systems, our implementation achieves quadratic effective scaling, is more efficient than RI-MP2 starting at 280 correlated electrons, and is never more than 5-20 times slower than the equivalent Hartree-Fock property calculation. The largest calculation performed here was on the vancomycin molecule with 176 atoms, 542 correlated electrons, and 4700 basis functions and took 3.3 days on 12 central processing unit cores.

Quantum Information and Algorithms for Correlated Quantum Matter

Discoveries in quantum materials, which are characterized by the strongly quantum-mechanical nature of electrons and atoms, have revealed exotic properties that arise from correlations. It is the promise of quantum materials for quantum information science superimposed with the potential of new computational quantum algorithms to discover new quantum materials that inspires this Review. We anticipate that quantum materials to be discovered and developed in the next years will transform the areas of quantum information processing including communication, storage, and computing. Simultaneously, efforts toward developing new quantum algorithmic approaches for quantum simulation and advanced calculation methods for many-body quantum systems enable major advances toward functional quantum materials and their deployment. The advent of quantum computing brings new possibilities for eliminating the exponential complexity that has stymied simulation of correlated quantum systems on high-performance classical computers. Here, we review new algorithms and computational approaches to predict and understand the behavior of correlated quantum matter. The strongly interdisciplinary nature of the topics covered necessitates a common language to integrate ideas from these fields. We aim to provide this common language while weaving together fields across electronic structure theory, quantum electrodynamics, algorithm design, and open quantum systems. Our Review is timely in presenting the state-of-the-art in the field toward algorithms with nonexponential complexity for correlated quantum matter with applications in grand-challenge problems. Looking to the future, at the intersection of quantum information science and algorithms for correlated quantum matter, we envision seminal advances in predicting many-body quantum states and describing excitonic quantum matter and large-scale entangled states, a better understanding of high-temperature superconductivity, and quantifying open quantum system dynamics.

Efficient Reduced-Scaling Second-Order Møller-Plesset Perturbation Theory with Cholesky-Decomposed Densities and an Attenuated Coulomb Metric

We present a novel, highly efficient method for the computation of second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2) correlation energies, which uses the resolution of the identity (RI) approximation and local molecular orbitals obtained from a Cholesky decomposition of pseudodensity matrices (CDD), as in the RI-CDD-MP2 method developed previously in our group [Maurer, S. A.; Clin, L.; Ochsenfeld, C. J. Chem. Phys. 2014, 140, 224112]. In addition, we introduce an attenuated Coulomb metric and subsequently redesign the RI-CDD-MP2 method in order to exploit the resulting sparsity in the three-center integrals. Coulomb and exchange energy contributions are computed separately using specialized algorithms. A simple, yet effective integral screening protocol based on Schwarz estimates is used for the MP2 exchange energy. The Coulomb energy computation and the preceding transformations of the three-center integrals are accelerated using a modified version of the natural blocking approach [Jung, Y.; Head-Gordon, M. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2006, 8, 2831-2840]. Effective subquadratic scaling for a wide range of molecule sizes is demonstrated in test calculations in conjunction with a low prefactor. The method is shown to enable cost-efficient MP2 calculations on large molecular systems with several thousand basis functions.

Double hybrid DFT calculations with Slater type orbitals

On a comprehensive database with 1,644 datapoints, covering several aspects of main-group as well as of transition metal chemistry, we assess the performance of 60 density functional approximations (DFA), among them 36 double hybrids (DH). All calculations are performed using a Slater type orbital (STO) basis set of triple-ζ (TZ) quality and the highly efficient pair atomic resolution of the identity approach for the exchange- and Coulomb-term of the KS matrix (PARI-K and PARI-J, respectively) and for the evaluation of the MP2 energy correction (PARI-MP2). Employing the quadratic scaling SOS-AO-PARI-MP2 algorithm, DHs based on the spin-opposite-scaled (SOS) MP2 approximation are benchmarked against a database of large molecules. We evaluate the accuracy of STO/PARI calculations for B3LYP as well as for the DH B2GP-PLYP and show that the combined basis set and PARI-error is comparable to the one obtained using the well-known def2-TZVPP Gaussian-type basis set in conjunction with global density fitting. While quadruple-ζ (QZ) calculations are currently not feasible for PARI-MP2 due to numerical issues, we show that, on the TZ level, Jacob's ladder for classifying DFAs is reproduced. However, while the best DHs are more accurate than the best hybrids, the improvements are less pronounced than the ones commonly found on the QZ level. For conformers of organic molecules and noncovalent interactions where very high accuracy is required for qualitatively correct results, DHs provide only small improvements over hybrids, while they still excel in thermochemistry, kinetics, transition metal chemistry and the description of strained organic systems.

A Quadratic Pair Atomic Resolution of the Identity Based SOS-AO-MP2 Algorithm Using Slater Type Orbitals

We report a production level implementation of pair atomic resolution of the identity (PARI) based second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2) in the Slater type orbital (STO) based Amsterdam Density Functional (ADF) code. As demonstrated by systematic benchmarks, dimerization and isomerization energies obtained with our code using STO basis sets of triple-ζ-quality show mean absolute deviations from Gaussian type orbital, canonical, basis set limit extrapolated, global density fitting (DF)-MP2 results of less than 1 kcal/mol. Furthermore, we introduce a quadratic scaling atomic orbital based spin-opposite-scaled (SOS)-MP2 approach with a very small prefactor. Due to a worst-case scaling of [Formula: see text], our implementation is very fast already for small systems and shows an exceptionally early crossover to canonical SOS-PARI-MP2. We report computational wall time results for linear as well as for realistic three-dimensional molecules and show that triple-ζ quality calculations on molecules of several hundreds of atoms are only a matter of a few hours on a single compute node, the bottleneck of the computations being the SCF rather than the post-SCF energy correction.

Q-MP2-OS: Møller-Plesset Correlation Energy by Quadrature

We present a quadrature-based algorithm for computing the opposite-spin component of the MP2 correlation energy which scales quadratically with basis set size and is well-suited to large-scale parallelization. The key ideas, which are rooted in the earlier work of Hirata and co-workers, are to abandon all two-electron integrals, recast the energy as a seven-dimensional integral, approximate that integral by quadrature, and employ a cutoff strategy to minimize the number of intermediate quantities. We discuss our implementation in detail and show that it parallelizes almost perfectly on 840 cores for cyclosporine (a molecule with roughly 200 atoms), exhibits [Formula: see text] scaling for a sequence of polyglycines, and is principally limited by the accuracy of its quadrature.

Principal Domains in Local Correlation Theory

The computational efficiency of local correlation methods is strongly dependent on the size of the domain of functions used to expand local correlating orbitals such as orbital specific or pair natural orbitals. Here, we define a principal domain of order m as the subset of m one-particle functions that provides the best support for a given n-electron wave function by maximizing the partial trace of the one-body reduced density matrix. Principal domains maximize the overlap between the wave function and its approximant for two-electron systems and are the domain selection equivalent of Löwdin's natural orbitals. We present an efficient linear scaling greedy algorithm for obtaining principal domains of projected atomic orbitals and demonstrate its utility in the context of the pair natural orbital local correlation theory. We numerically determine thresholds such that the projected atomic orbital domain error is an order of magnitude smaller than the pair natural orbital truncation error.

Analytic gradients for the single-reference driven similarity renormalization group second-order perturbation theory

We derive and implement analytic energy gradients for the single-reference driven similarity renormalization group second-order perturbation theory (DSRG-PT2). The resulting equations possess an asymptotic scaling that is identical to that of the second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2), indicating that the exponential regularizer in the DSRG equations does not introduce formal difficulties in the gradient theory. We apply the DSRG-PT2 method to optimizing the geometries of 15 small molecules. The equilibrium bond lengths computed with DSRG-PT2 are found similar to those of MP2, yielding a mean absolute error of 0.0033 Å and a standard deviation of 0.0045 Å when compared with coupled cluster with singles, doubles, and perturbative triples.

An optimized twist angle to find the twist-averaged correlation energy applied to the uniform electron gas

We explore an alternative to twist averaging in order to obtain more cost-effective and accurate extrapolations to the thermodynamic limit (TDL) for coupled cluster doubles (CCD) calculations. We seek a single twist angle to perform calculations at, instead of integrating over many random points or a grid. We introduce the concept of connectivity, a quantity derived from the nonzero four-index integrals in an MP2 calculation. This allows us to find a special twist angle that provides appropriate connectivity in the energy equation, which yields results comparable to full twist averaging. This special twist angle effectively makes the finite electron number CCD calculation represent the TDL more accurately, reducing the cost of twist-averaged CCD over N_s twist angles from N_s CCD calculations to N_s MP2 calculations plus one CCD calculation.

Selected-Nuclei Method for the Computation of Hyperfine Coupling Constants within Second-Order Møller-Plesset Perturbation Theory

We introduce a new ansatz to compute hyperfine coupling constants of selected nuclei at the level of second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation (MP2) and double-hybrid density functional theory with reduced computational effort, opening the route to the analyis of hyperfine coupling constants of large molecular structures. Our approach is based on a reformulation of the canonical MP2 term in atomic orbitals, thus exploiting the locality of electron correlation. We show that a perturbation-including integral screening reduces the scaling behavior of the number of significant two-electron integrals to sublinear. This selected-nuclei approach allows for an efficient computation within scaled-opposite spin (SOS) RI-MP2 on massively parallelized architectures such as graphical processor units (GPUs), thus enabling studies on the influence of the environment on hyperfine coupling constants.

Low-scaling first-order properties within second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory using Cholesky decomposed density matrices

An efficient implementation of energy gradients and of hyperfine coupling constants in second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2) is presented based on our fully atomic orbital (AO)-based approach. For the latter, an unrestricted AO-based MP2 formulation is introduced. A reduction in the dependency of the computational efficiency on the size of the basis set is achieved by a Cholesky decomposition and the prefactor is reduced by the resolution-of-the-identity approximation. Significant integral contributions are selected based on distance-including integral estimates (denoted as QQR-screening) and its reliability as a fully controlled screening procedure is demonstrated. The rate-determining steps are shown via model computations to scale cubically in the computation of energy gradients and quadratically in the case of hyperfine coupling constants. Furthermore, a significant speed-up of the computational time with respect to the canonical formulation is demonstrated.

Simplified DFT methods for consistent structures and energies of large systems

Kohn-Sham density functional theory (DFT) is routinely used for the fast electronic structure computation of large systems and will most likely continue to be the method of choice for the generation of reliable geometries in the foreseeable future. Here, we present a hierarchy of simplified DFT methods designed for consistent structures and non-covalent interactions of large systems with particular focus on molecular crystals. The covered methods are a minimal basis set Hartree-Fock (HF-3c), a small basis set screened exchange hybrid functional (HSE-3c), and a generalized gradient approximated functional evaluated in a medium-sized basis set (B97-3c), all augmented with semi-classical correction potentials. We give an overview on the methods design, a comprehensive evaluation on established benchmark sets for geometries and lattice energies of molecular crystals, and highlight some realistic applications on large organic crystals with several hundreds of atoms in the primitive unit cell.

Laplace-transformed multi-reference second-order perturbation theories in the atomic and active molecular orbital basis

In the present article, we show how to formulate the partially contracted n-electron valence second-order perturbation theory (NEVPT2) energies in the atomic and active molecular orbital basis by employing the Laplace transformation of orbital-energy denominators (OEDs). As atomic-orbital (AO) basis functions are inherently localized and the number of active orbitals is comparatively small, our formulation is particularly suited for a linearly scaling NEVPT2 implementation. In our formulation, there are two kinds of NEVPT2 energy contributions, which differ in the number of active orbitals in the two-electron integrals involved. Those involving integrals with either no or a single active orbital can be formulated completely in the AO basis as single-reference second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory and benefit from sparse active pseudo-density matrices-particularly if the active molecular orbitals are localized only in parts of a molecule. Conversely, energy contributions involving integrals with either two or three active orbitals can be obtained from Coulomb and exchange matrices generalized for pairs of active orbitals. Moreover, we demonstrate that Laplace-transformed partially contracted NEVPT2 is nothing less than time-dependent NEVPT2 [A. Y. Sokolov and G. K.-L. Chan, J. Chem. Phys. 144, 064102 (2016)] iff the all-active intermediates are computed with the internal-contraction approximation. Furthermore, we show that for multi-reference perturbation theories it is particularly challenging to find optimal parameters of the numerical Laplace transformation as the fit range may vary among the 8 different OEDs by many orders of magnitude. Selecting the number of quadrature points for each OED separately according to an accuracy-based criterion allows us to control the errors in the NEVPT2 energies reliably.

Optimization of the linear-scaling local natural orbital CCSD(T) method: Redundancy-free triples correction using Laplace transform

An improved algorithm is presented for the evaluation of the (T) correction as a part of our local natural orbital (LNO) coupled-cluster singles and doubles with perturbative triples [LNO-CCSD(T)] scheme [Z. Rolik et al., J. Chem. Phys. 139, 094105 (2013)]. The new algorithm is an order of magnitude faster than our previous one and removes the bottleneck related to the calculation of the (T) contribution. First, a numerical Laplace transformed expression for the (T) fragment energy is introduced, which requires on average 3 to 4 times fewer floating point operations with negligible compromise in accuracy eliminating the redundancy among the evaluated triples amplitudes. Second, an additional speedup factor of 3 is achieved by the optimization of our canonical (T) algorithm, which is also executed in the local case. These developments can also be integrated into canonical as well as alternative fragmentation-based local CCSD(T) approaches with minor modifications. As it is demonstrated by our benchmark calculations, the evaluation of the new Laplace transformed (T) correction can always be performed if the preceding CCSD iterations are feasible, and the new scheme enables the computation of LNO-CCSD(T) correlation energies with at least triple-zeta quality basis sets for realistic three-dimensional molecules with more than 600 atoms and 12 000 basis functions in a matter of days on a single processor.

The Laplace transformed divide-expand-consolidate resolution of the identity second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation (DEC-LT-RIMP2) theory method

The divide-expand-consolidate resolution of the identity second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation (DEC-RI-MP2) theory method introduced in Baudin et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 144, 054102 (2016)] is significantly improved by introducing the Laplace transform of the orbital energy denominator in order to construct the double amplitudes directly in the local basis. Furthermore, this paper introduces the auxiliary reduction procedure, which reduces the set of the auxiliary functions employed in the individual fragments. The resulting Laplace transformed divide-expand-consolidate resolution of the identity second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation method is applied to the insulin molecule where we obtain a factor 9.5 speedup compared to the DEC-RI-MP2 method.

An Integral-Direct Linear-Scaling Second-Order Møller-Plesset Approach

An integral-direct, iteration-free, linear-scaling, local second-order Møller-Plesset (MP2) approach is presented, which is also useful for spin-scaled MP2 calculations as well as for the efficient evaluation of the perturbative terms of double-hybrid density functionals. The method is based on a fragmentation approximation: the correlation contributions of the individual electron pairs are evaluated in domains constructed for the corresponding localized orbitals, and the correlation energies of distant electron pairs are computed with multipole expansions. The required electron repulsion integrals are calculated directly invoking the density fitting approximation; the storage of integrals and intermediates is avoided. The approach also utilizes natural auxiliary functions to reduce the size of the auxiliary basis of the domains and thereby the operation count and memory requirement. Our test calculations show that the approach recovers 99.9% of the canonical MP2 correlation energy and reproduces reaction energies with an average (maximum) error below 1 kJ/mol (4 kJ/mol). Our benchmark calculations demonstrate that the new method enables MP2 calculations for molecules with more than 2300 atoms and 26000 basis functions on a single processor.

Efficient linear-scaling second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory: The divide-expand-consolidate RI-MP2 model

The Resolution of the Identity second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory (RI-MP2) method is implemented within the linear-scaling Divide-Expand-Consolidate (DEC) framework. In a DEC calculation, the full molecular correlated calculation is replaced by a set of independent fragment calculations each using a subset of the total orbital space. The number of independent fragment calculations scales linearly with the system size, rendering the method linear-scaling and massively parallel. The DEC-RI-MP2 method can be viewed as an approximation to the DEC-MP2 method where the RI approximation is utilized in each fragment calculation. The individual fragment calculations scale with the fifth power of the fragment size for both methods. However, the DEC-RI-MP2 method has a reduced prefactor compared to DEC-MP2 and is well-suited for implementation on massively parallel supercomputers, as demonstrated by test calculations on a set of medium-sized molecules. The DEC error control ensures that the standard RI-MP2 energy can be obtained to the predefined precision. The errors associated with the RI and DEC approximations are compared, and it is shown that the DEC-RI-MP2 method can be applied to systems far beyond the ones that can be treated with a conventional RI-MP2 implementation.

Screened exchange hybrid density functional for accurate and efficient structures and interaction energies

HSE-3c: a computationally efficient and numerically robust screened hybrid functional that can be applied to periodic small gap systems.

Consistent structures and interactions by density functional theory with small atomic orbital basis sets

A density functional theory (DFT) based composite electronic structure approach is proposed to efficiently compute structures and interaction energies in large chemical systems. It is based on the well-known and numerically robust Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhoff (PBE) generalized-gradient-approximation in a modified global hybrid functional with a relatively large amount of non-local Fock-exchange. The orbitals are expanded in Ahlrichs-type valence-double zeta atomic orbital (AO) Gaussian basis sets, which are available for many elements. In order to correct for the basis set superposition error (BSSE) and to account for the important long-range London dispersion effects, our well-established atom-pairwise potentials are used. In the design of the new method, particular attention has been paid to an accurate description of structural parameters in various covalent and non-covalent bonding situations as well as in periodic systems. Together with the recently proposed three-fold corrected (3c) Hartree-Fock method, the new composite scheme (termed PBEh-3c) represents the next member in a hierarchy of "low-cost" electronic structure approaches. They are mainly free of BSSE and account for most interactions in a physically sound and asymptotically correct manner. PBEh-3c yields good results for thermochemical properties in the huge GMTKN30 energy database. Furthermore, the method shows excellent performance for non-covalent interaction energies in small and large complexes. For evaluating its performance on equilibrium structures, a new compilation of standard test sets is suggested. These consist of small (light) molecules, partially flexible, medium-sized organic molecules, molecules comprising heavy main group elements, larger systems with long bonds, 3d-transition metal systems, non-covalently bound complexes (S22 and S66×8 sets), and peptide conformations. For these sets, overall deviations from accurate reference data are smaller than for various other tested DFT methods and reach that of triple-zeta AO basis set second-order perturbation theory (MP2/TZ) level at a tiny fraction of computational effort. Periodic calculations conducted for molecular crystals to test structures (including cell volumes) and sublimation enthalpies indicate very good accuracy competitive to computationally more involved plane-wave based calculations. PBEh-3c can be applied routinely to several hundreds of atoms on a single processor and it is suggested as a robust "high-speed" computational tool in theoretical chemistry and physics.