Going beyond “no-pair relativistic quantum chemistry”

Unified construction of relativistic Hamiltonians

It is shown that the four-component (4C), quasi-four-component (Q4C), and exact two-component (X2C) relativistic Hartree-Fock equations can be implemented in a unified manner by making use of the atomic nature of the small components of molecular 4-spinors. A model density matrix approximation can first be invoked for the small-component charge/current density functions, which gives rise to a static, pre-molecular mean field to be combined with the one-electron term. As a result, only the nonrelativistic-like two-electron term of the 4C/Q4C/X2C Fock matrix needs to be updated during the iterations. A "one-center small-component" approximation can then be invoked in the evaluation of relativistic integrals, that is, all atom-centered small-component basis functions are regarded as extremely localized near the position of the atom to which they belong such that they have vanishing overlaps with all small- or large-component functions centered at other nuclei. Under these approximations, the 4C, Q4C, and X2C mean-field and many-electron Hamiltonians share precisely the same structure and accuracy. Beyond these is the effective quantum electrodynamics Hamiltonian that can be constructed in the same way. Such approximations lead to errors that are orders of magnitude smaller than other sources of errors (e.g., truncation errors in the one- and many-particle bases as well as uncertainties of experimental measurements) and are, hence, safe to use for whatever purposes. The quaternion forms of the 4C, Q4C, and X2C equations are also presented in the most general way, based on which the corresponding Kramers-restricted open-shell variants are formulated for "high-spin" open-shell systems.

Exploring Locality in Molecular Dirac-Coulomb-Breit Calculations: A Perspective

The Dirac-Coulomb-Breit (DCB) operator is widely recognized for its ability to accurately capture relativistic effects and spin-physics in molecular calculations. However, due to its high computational cost, there is a need to develop low-scaling approximations without compromising accuracy. To tackle this challenge, it becomes essential to gain a deeper understanding of the DCB operator's behavior. This work aims to explore local integral approximations, shedding light on the locality of the parts of the charge-current distribution due to the small component. In particular, we propose an atomic Breit approximation that leverages an analysis of the behavior observed in a series of gold chains. Through benchmark studies of metal complexes, we evaluated the accuracy and performance of the proposed atomic Breit approximation. This work provides a comprehensive understanding of the behavior of the charge-current distribution in terms of its contributions from its AO basis constituents, facilitating the development of low-scaling methods that strike a balance between computational efficiency and accuracy.

Effective quantum electrodynamics: One-dimensional model of the relativistic hydrogen-like atom

We consider a one-dimensional effective quantum electrodynamics (QED) model of the relativistic hydrogen-like atom using delta-potential interactions. We discuss the general exact theory and the Hartree-Fock approximation. The present one-dimensional effective QED model shares the essential physical feature of the three-dimensional theory: the nuclear charge polarizes the vacuum state (creation of electron-positron pairs), which results in a QED Lamb-type shift of the bound-state energy. Yet, this 1D effective QED model eliminates some of the most serious technical difficulties of the three-dimensional theory coming from renormalization. We show how to calculate the vacuum-polarization density at zeroth order in the two-particle interaction and the QED Lamb-type shift of the bound-state energy at first order in the two-particle interaction. The present work may be considered a step toward the development of a quantum-chemistry effective QED theory of atoms and molecules.

Correlated Dirac-Coulomb-Breit multiconfigurational self-consistent-field methods

The fully correlated frequency-independent Dirac-Coulomb-Breit Hamiltonian provides the most accurate description of electron-electron interaction before going to a genuine relativistic quantum electrodynamics theory of many-electron systems. In this work, we introduce a correlated Dirac-Coulomb-Breit multiconfigurational self-consistent-field method within the frameworks of complete active space and density matrix renormalization group. In this approach, the Dirac-Coulomb-Breit Hamiltonian is included variationally in both the mean-field and correlated electron treatment. We also analyze the importance of the Breit operator in electron correlation and the rotation between the positive- and negative-orbital space in the no-virtual-pair approximation. Atomic fine-structure splittings and lanthanide contraction in diatomic fluorides are used as benchmark studies to understand the contribution from the Breit correlation.

Efficient Evaluation of the Breit Operator in the Pauli Spinor Basis

The frequency-independent Coulomb-Breit operator gives rise to the most accurate treatment of two-electron interaction in the non-quantum-electrodynamics regime. The Breit interaction in the Coulomb gauge consists of magnetic and gauge contributions. The high computational cost of the gauge term limits the application of the Breit interaction in relativistic molecular calculations. In this work, we apply the Pauli component integral-density matrix contraction scheme for gauge interaction with a maximum spin- and component separation scheme. We also present two different computational algorithms for evaluating gauge integrals. One is the generalized Obara-Saika algorithm, where the Laplace transformation is used to transform the gauge operator into Gaussian functions and the Obara-Saika recursion is used for reducing the angular momentum. The other algorithm is the second derivative of inverse Coulomb interaction evaluated with Rys-quadrature. This work improves the efficiency of performing Dirac-Hartree-Fock with variational treatment of Breit interaction for molecular systems. We use this formalism to examine relativistic trends in the periodic table, and analyze the relativistic two-electron interaction contributions in heavy-element complexes.

SOiCI and iCISO: combining iterative configuration interaction with spin-orbit coupling in two ways

The near-exact iCIPT2 approach for strongly correlated systems of electrons, which stems from the combination of iterative configuration interaction (iCI, an exact solver of full CI) with configuration selection for static correlation and second-order perturbation theory (PT2) for dynamic correlation, is extended to the relativistic domain. In the spirit of spin separation, relativistic effects are treated in two steps: scalar relativity is treated by the infinite-order, spin-free part of the exact two-component (X2C) relativistic Hamiltonian, whereas spin-orbit coupling (SOC) is treated by the first-order, Douglas-Kroll-Hess-like SOC operator derived from the same X2C Hamiltonian. Two possible combinations of iCIPT2 with SOC are considered, i.e., SOiCI and iCISO. The former treats SOC and electron correlation on an equal footing, whereas the latter treats SOC in the spirit of state interaction, by constructing and diagonalizing an effective spin-orbit Hamiltonian matrix in a small number of correlated scalar states. Both double group and time reversal symmetries are incorporated to simplify the computation. Pilot applications reveal that SOiCI is very accurate for the spin-orbit splitting (SOS) of heavy atoms, whereas the computationally very cheap iCISO can safely be applied to the SOS of light atoms and even of systems containing heavy atoms when SOC is largely quenched by ligand fields.

On the Breit interaction in an explicitly correlated variational Dirac–Coulomb framework

The Breit interaction is implemented in the no-pair variational Dirac–Coulomb (DC) framework using an explicitly correlated Gaussian basis reported in the previous paper [P. Jeszenszki, D. Ferenc, and E. Mátyus, J. Chem. Phys. 156, 084111 (2022)]. Both a perturbative and a fully variational inclusion of the Breit term are considered. The no-pair DC plus perturbative Breit and the no-pair DC–Breit energies are compared with perturbation theory results including the Breit–Pauli Hamiltonian and leading-order non-radiative quantum electrodynamics corrections for low Z values. Possible reasons for the observed deviations are discussed.

Variational Dirac–Coulomb explicitly correlated computations for atoms and molecules

The Dirac–Coulomb equation with positive-energy projection is solved using explicitly correlated Gaussian functions. The algorithm and computational procedure aims for a parts-per-billion convergence of the energy to provide a starting point for further comparison and further developments in relation with high-resolution atomic and molecular spectroscopy. Besides a detailed discussion of the implementation of the fundamental spinor structure, permutation, and point-group symmetries, various options for the positive-energy projection procedure are presented. The no-pair Dirac–Coulomb energy converged to a parts-per-billion precision is compared with perturbative results for atomic and molecular systems with small nuclear charge numbers. Paper II [D. Ferenc, P. Jeszenszki, and E. Mátyus, J. Chem. Phys. 156, 084110 (2022).] describes the implementation of the Breit interaction in this framework.

The Static-Dynamic-Static Family of Methods for Strongly Correlated Electrons: Methodology and Benchmarking

A series of methods (SDSCI, SDSPT2, iCI, iCIPT2, iCISCF(2), iVI, and iCAS) is introduced to accurately describe strongly correlated systems of electrons. Born from the (restricted) static-dynamic-static (SDS) framework for designing many-electron wave functions, SDSCI is a minimal multireference (MR) configuration interaction (CI) approach that constructs and diagonalizes a [Formula: see text] matrix for [Formula: see text] states, regardless of the numbers of orbitals and electrons to be correlated. If the full molecular Hamiltonian H in the QHQ block (which describes couplings between functions of the first-order interaction space Q) of the SDSCI CI matrix is replaced with a zeroth-order Hamiltonian [Formula: see text] before the diagonalization is taken, we obtain SDSPT2, a CI-like second-order perturbation theory (PT2). Unlike most variants of MRPT2, SDSPT2 treats single and multiple states in the same way and is particularly advantageous in the presence of near degeneracy. On the other hand, if the SDSCI procedure is repeated until convergence, we will have iterative CI (iCI), which can converge quickly from the above to the exact solutions (full CI) even when starting with a poor guess. When further combined with the selection of important configurations followed by a PT2 treatment of dynamic correlation, iCI becomes iCIPT2, which is a near-exact theory for medium-sized systems. The microiterations of iCI for relaxing the coefficients of contracted many-electron functions can be generalized to an iterative vector interaction (iVI) approach for finding exterior or interior roots of a given matrix, in which the dimension of the search subspace is fixed by either the number of target roots or the user-specified energy window. Naturally, iCIPT2 can be employed as the active space solver of the complete active space (CAS) self-consistent field, leading to iCISCF(2), which can further be combined with iCAS for automated selection of active orbitals and assurance of the same CAS for all states and all geometries. The methods are calibrated by taking the Thiel set of benchmark systems as examples. Results for the corresponding cations, a new set of benchmark systems, are also reported.

Relativistic time-dependent density functional theories

The foundations, formalisms, technicalities, and practicalities of relativistic time-dependent density functional theories (R-TD-DFT) for spinor excited states of molecular systems containing heavy elements are critically reviewed.

QED effects in 1s and 2s single and double ionization potentials of the noble gases

We present calculations on the quantum electrodynamics (QED) effects in 1s and 2s single and double ionization potentials of noble gases from Ne to Rn as perturbations on relativistic four-component Dirac-Fock wavefunctions. The most dominant effect originates from the self-energy of the core-electron that yields corrections of similar order as the transverse interaction. For 1s ionization potentials, a match within few eV against the known experimental values is obtained, and our work reveals considerable QED effects in the photoelectron binding energies across the periodic table-most strikingly even for Ne. We perform power-law fits for the corrections as a function of Z and interpolate the QED correction of ∼-0.55 eV for S1s. Due to this, the K-edge electron spectra of the third row and below need QED for a match in the absolute energy when using state-of-the-art instrumentation.

Relativistic Coupled Cluster Calculations with Variational Quantum Electrodynamics Resolve the Discrepancy between Experiment and Theory Concerning the Electron Affinity and Ionization Potential of Gold

The first ionization potential (IP) and electron affinity (EA) of the gold atom have been determined to an unprecedented accuracy using relativistic coupled cluster calculations up to the pentuple excitation level including the Breit and QED contributions. We reach meV accuracy (with respect to the experimental values) by carefully accounting for all individual contributions beyond the standard relativistic coupled cluster approach. Thus, we are able to resolve the long-standing discrepancy between experimental and theoretical IP and EA of gold.

Big picture of relativistic molecular quantum mechanics

Any quantum mechanical calculation on electronic structure ought to choose first an appropriate Hamiltonian H and then an Ansatz for parameterizing the wave function Ψ, from which the desired energy/property E(λ) can finally be calculated. Therefore, the very first question is: what is the most accurate many-electron Hamiltonian H? It is shown that such a Hamiltonian i.e. effective quantum electrodynamics (eQED) Hamiltonian, can be obtained naturally by incorporating properly the charge conjugation symmetry when normal ordering the second quantized fermion operators. Taking this eQED Hamiltonian as the basis, various approximate relativistic many-electron Hamiltonians can be obtained based entirely on physical arguments. All these Hamiltonians together form a complete and continuous ‘Hamiltonian ladder’, from which one can pick up the right one according to the target physics and accuracy. As for the many-electron wave function Ψ, the most intriguing questions are as follows. (i) How to do relativistic explicit correlation? (ii) How to handle strong correlation? Both general principles and practical strategies are outlined here to handle these issues. Among the electronic properties E(λ) that sample the electronic wave function nearby the nuclear region, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) shielding and nuclear spin-rotation (NSR) coupling constant are especially challenging: they require body-fixed molecular Hamiltonians that treat both the electrons and nuclei as relativistic quantum particles. Nevertheless, they have been formulated rigorously. In particular, a very robust ‘relativistic mapping’ between the two properties has been established, which can translate experimentally measured NSR coupling constants to very accurate absolute NMR shielding scales that otherwise cannot be obtained experimentally. Since the most general and fundamental issues pertinent to all the three components of the quantum mechanical equation HΨ = EΨ (i.e. Hamiltonian H, wave function Ψ, and energy/property E(λ)) have fully been understood, the big picture of relativistic molecular quantum mechanics can now be regarded as established.

Structure and thermodynamic properties of relativistic electron gases

Relativistic effect is important in many quantum systems but theoretically complicated from both fundamental and practical perspectives. Herein we introduce an efficient computational procedure to predict the structure and energetic properties of relativistic quantum systems by mapping the Pauli principle into an effective pairwise-additive potential such that the properties of relativistic nonquantum systems can be readily predicted from conventional liquid-state methods. We applied our theoretical procedure to relativistic uniform electron gases and compared the pair correlation functions with those for systems of nonrelativistic electrons. A simple analytical expression has been developed to correlate the exchange-correlation free energy of relativistic uniform electron systems.

Solution of the Dirac Coulomb equation for helium-like ions in the Poet-Temkin model

The Dirac-Coulomb equation for the helium atom is studied under the restrictions of the Poet-Temkin model which replaces the 1/r12 interaction by the simplified 1/r> form. The effective reduction in the dimensionality made it possible to obtain binding energies for the singlet and triplet states in this model problem with a relative precision from 10(-8) to 10(-10). The energies for the singlet state were consistent with a previous configuration interaction calculation [H. Tatewaki and Y. Watanabe, Chem. Phys. 389, 58 (2011)]. Manifestations of Brown-Ravenhall disease were noted at higher values of nuclear charge and ultimately limited the accuracy of the Poet-Temkin model energy. The energies from a no-pair configuration interaction (CI) calculation (the negative-energy states for the appropriate hydrogen-like ion were excluded from the CI expansion) were found to be different from the unrestricted B-spline calculation.