Ring coupled cluster doubles at the multireference level

Separation of metric in Wick's theorem

In quantum chemistry, Wick's theorem is an important tool to reduce products of fermionic creation and annihilation operators. It is especially useful in computations employing reference states. The original theorem has been generalized to tackle multiconfigurational wave functions or nonorthogonal orbitals. One particular issue of the resulting structure is that the metric and density matrices are intertwined despite their different origin. Here, an alternative, rather general tensorial formulation of Wick's theorem is proposed. The main difference is the separation of the metric-the coefficients at normal-ordered operators become products of an n-electron density matrix element and the Pfaffian of a matrix formed by orbital overlaps. Different properties of the formalism are discussed, including the use of density cumulants, the particle-hole symmetry, and applications to transition density matrices, i.e., the case of different bra and ket reference states. The metric-separated version of Wick's theorem provides a platform for the derivation of various quantum chemical methods, especially those complicated by non-trivial reference states and nonorthogonality issues.

Dressing of Vertices by Cumulants in Multi-Reference Coupled Cluster

A new scheme is introduced in Multi-Reference (MR) Coupled Cluster (CC) based on the MR Generalized Normal Ordering (MRGNO) and the corresponding MR Generalized Wick Theorem (MRGWT) of Kutzelnigg and Mukherjee. The key element is the identification of a structure in MRGWT generated terms, facilitated by Goldstone diagram techniques. This allows for bundling the many terms of the MRGWT expansion and introduces a hierarchy in the equations that can be harnessed in devising approximations. One- and two-particle interaction vertices are found to be uniformly substituted for their counterpart dressed by density cumulants. This allows for a straightforward rewriting of the ordinary energy expression of CC with interaction dressed (id) one- and two-particle terms and reveals the presence of three- and higher-rank dressed interaction vertices too. Cumulants appearing out of dressed interaction vertices contribute to the amplitude equations and can be interpreted to have an amplitude dressing role. Dressing of one- and two-particle interaction vertices is the most straightforward to implement and does not hinder computational feasibility, provided that the reference function involves strictly limited active space sizes. The Generalized Valence Bond wave function, underlying pilot numerical tests, fulfills this criterion. Results on multiple bond breaking scenarios point to the need of stepping beyond one- and two-particle id. An extremely simple version of incorporating amplitude dressing in addition to one- and two-particle id is seen to cure the potential energy curves remarkably, stimulating further investigations along this line.

Symmetry-Adapted Perturbation with Half-Projection for Spin Unrestricted Geminals

Perturbative correction to a wave function built from singlet-triplet mixed two-electron functions (geminals) is derived in the context of symmetry-adapted schemes, applying partial spin-projection. Imposing the constraint of strong orthogonality of geminals results in a reference function that captures static correlation in a computationally feasible way. In case of a lack of spin purification, the product of spin-unrestricted geminals is generally spin-contaminated, potentially undermining performance of a subsequent dynamic correlation treatment. In this work, spin symmetry of the reference is partially restored by half-projection in a variation-after-projection scheme. Applying perturbation theory (PT) to recover the missing part of electron correlation is hampered by the fact that an obvious choice for a zero-order Hamiltonian is not provided. The situation is amended by adopting the formalism of symmetry-adapted PT. The resulting framework is tested on singlet-triplet gaps of biradicaloids, and it is found to perform well in situations where its unprojected counterpart fails because of spin contamination.

Describing Strong Correlation with Block-Correlated Coupled Cluster Theory

A block-correlated coupled cluster (BCCC) method based on the generalized valence bond (GVB) wave function (GVB-BCCC in short) is proposed and implemented at the ab initio level, which represents an attractive multireference electronic structure method for strongly correlated systems. The GVB-BCCC method is demonstrated to provide satisfactory descriptions for multiple bond breaking in small molecules, although the GVB reference function is qualitatively wrong for the studied processes. For a challenging prototype of strongly correlated systems, tridecane with all 12 single C-C bonds at various distances, our calculations have shown that the GVB-BCCC2b method can provide highly comparable results as the density matrix renormalization group method for potential energy surfaces along simultaneous dissociation of all C-C bonds.

Calculation of dispersion interactions with the geminal-based ring Coupled Cluster Doubles method

The performance of the recently developed multi-reference extension of ring coupled cluster doubles is investigated for dispersion energy calculations, applied to the generalized valence bond wave function. The leading-order contribution to the dispersion energy is shown to have the correct asymptotic behaviour. Illustrative calculations on noble gas dimers are presented.