Analytic first derivatives for a spin-adapted open-shell coupled cluster theory: Evaluation of first-order electrical properties

The General Atomic and Molecular Electronic Structure System (GAMESS): Novel Methods on Novel Architectures

The primary focus of GAMESS over the last 5 years has been the development of new high-performance codes that are able to take effective and efficient advantage of the most advanced computer architectures, both CPU and accelerators. These efforts include employing density fitting and fragmentation methods to reduce the high scaling of well-correlated (e.g., coupled-cluster) methods as well as developing novel codes that can take optimal advantage of graphical processing units and other modern accelerators. Because accurate wave functions can be very complex, an important new functionality in GAMESS is the quasi-atomic orbital analysis, an unbiased approach to the understanding of covalent bonds embedded in the wave function. Best practices for the maintenance and distribution of GAMESS are also discussed.

Multireference Electron Correlation Methods: Journeys along Potential Energy Surfaces

Multireference electron correlation methods describe static and dynamical electron correlation in a balanced way and, therefore, can yield accurate and predictive results even when single-reference methods or multiconfigurational self-consistent field theory fails. One of their most prominent applications in quantum chemistry is the exploration of potential energy surfaces. This includes the optimization of molecular geometries, such as equilibrium geometries and conical intersections and on-the-fly photodynamics simulations, both of which depend heavily on the ability of the method to properly explore the potential energy surface. Because such applications require nuclear gradients and derivative couplings, the availability of analytical nuclear gradients greatly enhances the scope of quantum chemical methods. This review focuses on the developments and advances made in the past two decades. A detailed account of the analytical nuclear gradient and derivative coupling theories is presented. Emphasis is given to the software infrastructure that allows one to make use of these methods. Notable applications of multireference electron correlation methods to chemistry, including geometry optimizations and on-the-fly dynamics, are summarized at the end followed by a discussion of future prospects.

Accurate Prediction of Hyperfine Coupling Tensors for Main Group Elements Using a Unitary Group Based Rigorously Spin-Adapted Coupled-Cluster Theory

We present the development of a perturbative triples correction scheme for the previously reported unitary group based spin-adapted combinatoric open-shell coupled-cluster (CC) singles and doubles (COS-CCSD) approach and report on the applications of the newly developed method, termed "COS-CCSD(T)", to the calculation of hyperfine coupling (HFC) tensors for radicals consisting of hydrogen, second- and third-row elements. The COS-CCSD(T) method involves a single noniterative step with [Formula: see text] scaling of the computational cost for the calculation of triples corrections to the energy. The key feature of this development is the use of spatial semicanonical orbitals generated from standard restricted open-shell Hartree-Fock (ROHF) orbitals, which allows the unperturbed Hamiltonian operator to be defined in terms of a diagonal spin-free Fock operator. The HFC tensors are computed as a first-order property via implementation of an analytic derivative scheme. The required one-particle spin density matrix is computed by using one- and two-particle spin-free density matrices that are obtained from the analytic derivative implementation, in this way avoiding the use of any spin-dependent operator and maintaining spin adaptation of the CC wavefunction. Benchmark calculations of HFC tensors for a set of 21 radicals indicate reasonably good agreement of the COS-CCSD(T) results with experiment and a consistent improvement over the COS-CCSD method. We demonstrate that the accuracies of the isotropic hyperfine coupling constants obtained in unrestricted HF (UHF) reference based spin-orbital CCSD(T) calculations deteriorate when spin contamination in the UHF wavefunction is large, and the results may even become qualitatively incorrect when spin polarization is the driving mechanism. Within a similar noniterative perturbative treatment of triple excitations, the spin-adapted COS-CCSD(T) approach produces accurate results, thus ensuring cost-effectiveness together with reliability.