Transcorrelated density matrix renormalization group

Toward Real Chemical Accuracy on Current Quantum Hardware Through the Transcorrelated Method

Quantum computing is emerging as a new computational paradigm with the potential to transform several research fields including quantum chemistry. However, current hardware limitations (including limited coherence times, gate infidelities, and connectivity) hamper the implementation of most quantum algorithms and call for more noise-resilient solutions. We propose an explicitly correlated Ansatz based on the transcorrelated (TC) approach to target these major roadblocks directly. This method transfers, without any approximation, correlations from the wave function directly into the Hamiltonian, thus reducing the resources needed to achieve accurate results with noisy quantum devices. We show that the TC approach allows for shallower circuits and improves the convergence toward the complete basis set limit, providing energies within chemical accuracy to experiment with smaller basis sets and, thus, fewer qubits. We demonstrate our method by computing bond lengths, dissociation energies, and vibrational frequencies close to experimental results for the hydrogen dimer and lithium hydride using two and four qubits, respectively. To demonstrate our approach's current and near-term potential, we perform hardware experiments, where our results confirm that the TC method paves the way toward accurate quantum chemistry calculations already on today's quantum hardware.

Efficient Exploitation of Numerical Quadrature with Distance-Dependent Integral Screening in Explicitly Correlated F12 Theory: Linear Scaling Evaluation of the Most Expensive RI-MP2-F12 Term

We present a linear scaling atomic orbital based algorithm for the computation of the most expensive exchange-type RI-MP2-F12 term by employing numerical quadrature in combination with CABS-RI to avoid six-center-three-electron integrals. Furthermore, a robust distance-dependent integral screening scheme, based on integral partition bounds [Thompson, T. H.; Ochsenfeld, C. J. Chem. Phys. 2019, 150, 044101], is used to drastically reduce the number of the required three-center-one-electron integrals substantially. The accuracy of our numerical quadrature/CABS-RI approach and the corresponding integral screening is thoroughly assessed for interaction and isomerization energies across a variety of numerical integration grids. Our method outperforms the standard density fitting/CABS-RI approach with errors below 1 μEh even for small grid sizes and moderate screening thresholds. The choice of the grid size and screening threshold allows us to tailor our ansatz to a desired accuracy and computational efficiency. We showcase the approach's effectiveness for the chemically relevant system valinomycin, employing a triple-ζ F12 basis set combination (C54H90N6O18, 5757 AO basis functions, 10,266 CABS basis functions, 735,783 grid points). In this context, our ansatz achieves higher accuracy combined with a 135× speedup compared to the classical density fitting based variant, requiring notably less computation time than the corresponding RI-MP2 calculation. Additionally, we demonstrate near-linear scaling through calculations on linear alkanes. We achieved an 817-fold acceleration for C80H162 and an extrapolated 28,765-fold acceleration for C200H402, resulting in a substantially reduced computational time for the latter─from 229 days to just 11.5 min. Our ansatz may also be adapted to the remaining MP2-F12 terms, which will be the subject of future work.

Toward a Stochastic Complete Active Space Second-Order Perturbation Theory

In this work, an internally contracted stochastic complete active space second-order perturbation theory, stochastic-CASPT2, is reported. The method relies on stochastically sampled reduced density matrices (RDMs) up to rank four and contractions thereof with the generalized Fock matrix. A new protocol for calculating higher-order RDMs in full configuration interaction quantum Monte Carlo (FCIQMC) has been designed based on (1) restricting sampling of the corresponding excitations to a deterministic subspace, (2) averaging the RDMs from independent dynamics and (3) projecting them onto the closest positive semi-definite matrix. Our protocol avoids previously encountered numerical conditioning problems in the orthogonalization of the perturber overlap matrix stemming from numerical noise. The chromium dimer CASSCF(12,12)/CASPT2 binding curve is computed as a proof of concept.

Block2: A comprehensive open source framework to develop and apply state-of-the-art DMRG algorithms in electronic structure and beyond

block2 is an open source framework to implement and perform density matrix renormalization group and matrix product state algorithms. Out-of-the-box it supports the eigenstate, time-dependent, response, and finite-temperature algorithms. In addition, it carries special optimizations for ab initio electronic structure Hamiltonians and implements many quantum chemistry extensions to the density matrix renormalization group, such as dynamical correlation theories. The code is designed with an emphasis on flexibility, extensibility, and efficiency and to support integration with external numerical packages. Here, we explain the design principles and currently supported features and present numerical examples in a range of applications.

Nonunitary projective transcorrelation theory inspired by the F12 ansatz

An alternative nonunitary transcorrelation, inspired by the F12 ansatz, is investigated. In contrast to the Jastrow transcorrelation of Boys-Handy, the effective Hamiltonian of this projective transcorrelation features: 1. a series terminating formally at four-body interactions. 2. no spin-contamination within the non-relativistic framework. 3. simultaneous satisfaction of the singlet and triplet first-order cusp conditions. 4. arbitrary choices of pairs for correlation including frozen-core approximations. We discuss the connection between the projective transcorrelation and F12 theory with applications to small molecules, to show that the cusp conditions play an important role to reduce the uncertainty arising from the nonunitary transformation.

Galván I, Alavi A, Aleotti F, Aquilante F, Autschbach J, Avagliano D, Baiardi A, Bao JJ, Battaglia S, Birnoschi L, Blanco-González A, Bokarev SI, Broer R, Cacciari R, Calio PB, Carlson RK, Carvalho Couto R, Cerdán L, Chibotaru LF, Chilton NF, Church JR, Conti I, Coriani S, Cuéllar-Zuquin J, Daoud RE, Dattani N, Decleva P, de Graaf C, Delcey M, De Vico L, Dobrautz W, Dong SS, Feng R, Ferré N, Filatov(Gulak) M, Gagliardi L, Garavelli M, González L, Guan Y, Guo M, Hennefarth MR, Hermes MR, Hoyer CE, Huix-Rotllant M, Jaiswal VK, Kaiser A, Kaliakin DS, Khamesian M, King DS, Kochetov V, Krośnicki M, Kumaar AA, Larsson ED, Lehtola S, Lepetit MB, Lischka H, López Ríos P, Lundberg M, Ma D, Mai S, Marquetand P, Merritt ICD, Montorsi F, Mörchen M, Nenov A, Nguyen VHA, Nishimoto Y, Oakley MS, Olivucci M, Oppel M, Padula D, Pandharkar R, Phung QM, Plasser F, Raggi G, Rebolini E, Reiher M, Rivalta I, Roca-Sanjuán D, Romig T, Safari AA, Sánchez-Mansilla A, Sand AM, Schapiro I, Scott TR, Segarra-Martí J, Segatta F, Sergentu DC, Sharma P, Shepard R, Shu Y, Staab JK, Straatsma TP, Sørensen LK, Tenorio BNC, Truhlar DG, Ungur L, Vacher M, Veryazov V, Voß TA, Weser O, Wu D, Yang X, Yarkony D, Zhou C, Zobel JP, Lindh R. The OpenMolcas Web: A Community-Driven Approach to Advancing Computational Chemistry

The developments of the open-source OpenMolcas chemistry software environment since spring 2020 are described, with a focus on novel functionalities accessible in the stable branch of the package or via interfaces with other packages. These developments span a wide range of topics in computational chemistry and are presented in thematic sections: electronic structure theory, electronic spectroscopy simulations, analytic gradients and molecular structure optimizations, ab initio molecular dynamics, and other new features. This report offers an overview of the chemical phenomena and processes OpenMolcas can address, while showing that OpenMolcas is an attractive platform for state-of-the-art atomistic computer simulations.

Transcorrelated selected configuration interaction in a bi-orthonormal basis and with a cheap three-body correlation factor

In this work, we develop a mathematical framework for a selected configuration interaction (SCI) algorithm within a bi-orthogonal basis for transcorrelated (TC) calculations. The bi-orthogonal basis used here serves as the equivalent of the standard Hartree-Fock (HF) orbitals. However, within the context of TC, it leads to distinct orbitals for the left and right vectors. Our findings indicate that the use of such a bi-orthogonal basis allows for a proper definition of the frozen core approximation. In contrast, the use of HF orbitals results in bad error cancellations for ionization potentials and atomization energies (AE). Compared to HF orbitals, the optimized bi-orthogonal basis significantly reduces the positive part of the second-order energy (PT2), thereby facilitating the use of standard extrapolation techniques of hermitian SCI. While we did not observe a significant improvement in the convergence of the SCI algorithm, this is largely due to the use in this work of a simple three-body correlation factor introduced in a recent study. This correlation factor, which depends only on atomic parameters, eliminates the need for re-optimization of the correlation factor for molecular systems, making its use straightforward and user-friendly. Despite the simplicity of this correlation factor, we were able to achieve accurate results on the AE of a series of 14 molecules on a triple-zeta basis. We also successfully broke a double bond until the full dissociation limit while maintaining the size consistency property. This work thus demonstrates the potential of the BiO-TC-SCI approach in handling complex molecular systems.

Studies on the Transcorrelated Method

We investigate the possibility of using a transcorrelated (TC) Hamiltonian to describe electron correlation. A method to obtain TC wavefunctions was developed based on the mathematical framework of the bi-variational principle. This involves the construction of an effective TC Hamiltonian matrix, which can be solved in a self-consistent manner. This was optimized using a method we call second-order-moment minimization and demonstrate that it is possible to obtain highly accurate energies for some closed-shell atoms and helium-like ions. The effects of certain correlator terms on the description of electron-electron and electron-nuclear cusps were also examined graphically, and some TC wavefunctions were compared against near-exact Hylleraas wavefunctions.

Biorthonormal Orbital Optimization with a Cheap Core-Electron-Free Three-Body Correlation Factor for Quantum Monte Carlo and Transcorrelation

We introduce a novel three-body correlation factor that is designed to vanish in the core region around each nucleus and approach a universal two-body correlation factor for valence electrons. The transcorrelated Hamiltonian is used to optimize the orbitals of a single Slater determinant within a biorthonormal framework. The Slater-Jastrow wave function is optimized on a set of atomic and molecular systems containing both second-row elements and 3d transition metal elements. The optimization of the correlation factor and the orbitals, along with an increase in the basis set, results in a systematic lowering of the variational Monte Carlo energy for all systems tested. Importantly, the optimal parameters of the correlation factor obtained for atomic systems can be transferred to molecules. Additionally, the present correlation factor is computationally efficient and uses a mixed analytical-numerical integration scheme that reduces the costly numerical integration from R6 to R3.

Optimizing Jastrow factors for the transcorrelated method

We investigate the optimization of flexible tailored real-space Jastrow factors for use in the transcorrelated (TC) method in combination with highly accurate quantum chemistry methods, such as initiator full configuration interaction quantum Monte Carlo (FCIQMC). Jastrow factors obtained by minimizing the variance of the TC reference energy are found to yield better, more consistent results than those obtained by minimizing the variational energy. We compute all-electron atomization energies for the challenging first-row molecules C2, CN, N2, and O2 and find that the TC method yields chemically accurate results using only the cc-pVTZ basis set, roughly matching the accuracy of non-TC calculations with the much larger cc-pV5Z basis set. We also investigate an approximation in which pure three-body excitations are neglected from the TC-FCIQMC dynamics, saving storage and computational costs, and show that it affects relative energies negligibly. Our results demonstrate that the combination of tailored real-space Jastrow factors with the multi-configurational TC-FCIQMC method provides a route to obtaining chemical accuracy using modest basis sets, obviating the need for basis-set extrapolation and composite techniques.

Density Matrix Renormalization Group for Transcorrelated Hamiltonians: Ground and Excited States in Molecules

We present the theory of a density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) algorithm which can solve for both the ground and excited states of non-Hermitian transcorrelated Hamiltonians and show applications in molecular systems. Transcorrelation (TC) accelerates the basis set convergence rate by including known physics (such as, but not limited to, the electron-electron cusp) in the Jastrow factor used for the similarity transformation. It also improves the accuracy of approximate methods such as coupled cluster singles and doubles (CCSD) as shown by recent studies. However, the non-Hermiticity of the TC Hamiltonians poses challenges for variational methods like DMRG. Imaginary-time evolution on the matrix product state (MPS) in the DMRG framework has been proposed to circumvent this problem, but this is currently limited to treating the ground state and has lower efficiency than the time-independent DMRG (TI-DMRG) due to the need to eliminate Trotter errors. In this work, we show that with minimal changes to the existing TI-DMRG algorithm, namely, replacing the original Davidson solver with the general Davidson solver to solve the non-Hermitian effective Hamiltonians at each site for a few low-lying right eigenstates, and following the rest of the original DMRG recipe, one can find the ground and excited states with improved efficiency compared to the original DMRG when extrapolating to the infinite bond dimension limit in the same basis set. An accelerated basis set convergence rate is also observed, as expected, within the TC framework.

Explicitly Correlated Electronic Structure Calculations with Transcorrelated Matrix Product Operators

In this work, we present the first implementation of the transcorrelated electronic Hamiltonian in an optimization procedure for matrix product states by the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) algorithm. In the transcorrelation ansatz, the electronic Hamiltonian is similarity-transformed with a Jastrow factor to describe the cusp in the wave function at electron-electron coalescence. As a result, the wave function is easier to approximate accurately with the conventional expansion in terms of one-particle basis functions and Slater determinants. The transcorrelated Hamiltonian in first quantization comprises up to three-body interactions, which we deal with in the standard way by applying robust density fitting to two- and three-body integrals entering the second-quantized representation of this Hamiltonian. The lack of hermiticity of the transcorrelated Hamiltonian is taken care of along the lines of the first work on transcorrelated DMRG [ J. Chem. Phys. 2020, 153, 164115] by encoding it as a matrix product operator and optimizing the corresponding ground state wave function with imaginary-time time-dependent DMRG. We demonstrate our quantum chemical transcorrelated DMRG approach at the example of several atoms and first-row diatomic molecules. We show that transcorrelation improves the convergence rate to the complete basis set limit in comparison to conventional DMRG. Moreover, we study extensions of our approach that aim at reducing the cost of handling the matrix product operator representation of the transcorrelated Hamiltonian.

Transcorrelated coupled cluster methods

Transcorrelated coupled cluster and distinguishable cluster methods are presented. The Hamiltonian is similarity transformed with a Jastrow factor in the first quantization, which results in up to three-body integrals. The coupled cluster with singles and doubles equations on this transformed Hamiltonian are formulated and implemented. It is demonstrated that the resulting methods have a superior basis set convergence and accuracy to the corresponding conventional and explicitly correlated methods. Additionally, approximations for three-body integrals are suggested and tested.

Machine Learning for Electronically Excited States of Molecules

Electronically excited states of molecules are at the heart of photochemistry, photophysics, as well as photobiology and also play a role in material science. Their theoretical description requires highly accurate quantum chemical calculations, which are computationally expensive. In this review, we focus on not only how machine learning is employed to speed up such excited-state simulations but also how this branch of artificial intelligence can be used to advance this exciting research field in all its aspects. Discussed applications of machine learning for excited states include excited-state dynamics simulations, static calculations of absorption spectra, as well as many others. In order to put these studies into context, we discuss the promises and pitfalls of the involved machine learning techniques. Since the latter are mostly based on quantum chemistry calculations, we also provide a short introduction into excited-state electronic structure methods and approaches for nonadiabatic dynamics simulations and describe tricks and problems when using them in machine learning for excited states of molecules.

Electron Dynamics with the Time-Dependent Density Matrix Renormalization Group

In this work, we simulate the electron dynamics in molecular systems with the time-dependent density matrix renormalization group (TD-DMRG) algorithm. We leverage the generality of the so-called tangent-space TD-DMRG formulation and design a computational framework in which the dynamics is driven by the exact nonrelativistic electronic Hamiltonian. We show that by parametrizing the wave function as a matrix product state, we can accurately simulate the dynamics of systems including up to 20 electrons and 32 orbitals. We apply the TD-DMRG algorithm to three problems that are hardly targeted by time-independent methods: the calculation of molecular (hyper)polarizabilities, the simulation of electronic absorption spectra, and the study of ultrafast ionization dynamics.

The Shape of Full Configuration Interaction to Come

We present a Perspective on what the future holds for full configuration interaction (FCI) theory, with an emphasis on conceptual rather than technical details. Upon revisiting the early history of FCI, a number of its key contemporary approximations are compared on as equal a footing as possible, using a recent blind challenge on the benzene molecule as a testbed [Eriksen et al., J. Phys. Chem. Lett., 2020 11, 8922]. In the process, we review the scope of applications for which FCI continues to prove indispensable, and the required traits in terms of robustness, efficacy, and reliability its modern approximations must satisfy are discussed. We close by conveying a number of general observations on the merits offered by the state-of-the-art alongside some of the challenges still faced to this day. While the field has altogether seen immense progress over the years-the past decade, in particular-it remains clear that our community as a whole has a substantial way to go in enhancing the overall applicability of near-exact electronic structure theory for systems of general composition and increasing size.

Tailored coupled cluster theory in varying correlation regimes

The tailored coupled cluster (TCC) approach is a promising ansatz that preserves the simplicity of single-reference coupled cluster theory while incorporating a multi-reference wave function through amplitudes obtained from a preceding multi-configurational calculation. Here, we present a detailed analysis of the TCC wave function based on model systems, which require an accurate description of both static and dynamic correlation. We investigate the reliability of the TCC approach with respect to the exact wave function. In addition to the error in the electronic energy and standard coupled cluster diagnostics, we exploit the overlap of TCC and full configuration interaction wave functions as a quality measure. We critically review issues, such as the required size of the active space, size-consistency, symmetry breaking in the wave function, and the dependence of TCC on the reference wave function. We observe that possible errors caused by symmetry breaking can be mitigated by employing the determinant with the largest weight in the active space as reference for the TCC calculation. We find the TCC model to be promising in calculations with active orbital spaces which include all orbitals with a large single-orbital entropy, even if the active spaces become very large and then may require modern active-space approaches that are not restricted to comparatively small numbers of orbitals. Furthermore, utilizing large active spaces can improve on the TCC wave function approximation and reduce the size-consistency error because the presence of highly excited determinants affects the accuracy of the coefficients of low-excited determinants in the active space.