Active-space coupled-cluster methods

Striking the right balance of encoding electron correlation in the Hamiltonian and the wavefunction ansatz

Multi-configurational electronic structure theory delivers the most versatile approximations to many-electron wavefunctions, flexible enough to deal with all sorts of transformations, ranging from electronic excitations, to open-shell molecules and chemical reactions. Multi-configurational models are therefore essential to establish universally applicable, predictive ab initio methods for chemistry. Here, we present a discussion of explicit correlation approaches which address the nagging problem of dealing with static and dynamic electron correlation in multi-configurational active-space approaches. We review the latest developments and then point to their key obstacles. Our discussion is supported by new data obtained with tensor network methods. We argue in favor of simple electron-only correlator expressions that may allow one to define transcorrelated models in which the correlator does not bear a dependence on molecular structure.

Relativistic Coupled Cluster with Completely Renormalized and Perturbative Triples Corrections

We have implemented noniterative triples corrections to the energy from coupled-cluster with single and double excitations (CCSD) within the 1-electron exact two-component (1eX2C) relativistic framework. The effectiveness of both the CCSD(T) and the completely renormalized (CR) CC(2,3) approaches are demonstrated by performing all-electron computations of the potential energy curves and spectroscopic constants of copper, silver, and gold dimers in their ground electronic states. Spin-orbit coupling effects captured via the 1eX2C framework are shown to be crucial for recovering the correct shape of the potential energy curves, and the correlation effects due to triples in these systems change the dissociation energies by about 0.1-0.2 eV or about 4-7%. We also demonstrate that relativistic effects and basis set size and contraction scheme are significantly more important in Au2 than in Ag2 or Cu2.

Aufbau Suppressed Coupled Cluster Theory for Electronically Excited States

We introduce an approach to improve single-reference coupled cluster theory in settings where the Aufbau determinant is absent from or plays only a small role in the true wave function. Using a de-excitation operator that can be efficiently hidden within a similarity transform, we create a coupled cluster wave function in which de-excitations work to suppress the Aufbau determinant and produce wave functions dominated by other determinants. Thanks to an invertible and fully exponential form, the approach is systematically improvable, size consistent, size extensive, and, interestingly, size intensive in a granular way that should make the adoption of some ground state techniques, such as local correlation, relatively straightforward. In this initial study, we apply the general formalism to create a state-specific method for orbital-relaxed, singly excited states. We find that this approach matches the accuracy of similar-cost equation-of-motion methods in valence excitations while offering improved accuracy for charge transfer states. We also find the approach to be more accurate than excited-state-specific perturbation theory in both types of states.

Quantum Flow Algorithms for Simulating Many-Body Systems on Quantum Computers

We conducted quantum simulations of strongly correlated systems using the quantum flow (QFlow) approach, which enables sampling large subspaces of the Hilbert space through coupled variational problems in reduced dimensionality active spaces. Our QFlow algorithms significantly reduce circuit complexity and pave the way for scalable and constant-circuit-depth quantum computing. Our simulations show that QFlow can optimize the collective number of wave function parameters without increasing the required qubits using active spaces having an order of magnitude fewer number of parameters.

Reduced Scaling Real-Time Coupled Cluster Theory

Real-time coupled cluster (CC) methods have several advantages over their frequency-domain counterparts, namely, response and equation of motion CC theories. Broadband spectra, strong fields, and pulse manipulation allow for the simulation of complex spectroscopies that are unreachable using frequency-domain approaches. Due to the high-order polynomial scaling, the required numerical time propagation of the CC residual expressions is a computationally demanding process. This scaling may be reduced by local correlation schemes, which aim to reduce the size of the (virtual) orbital space by truncation according to user-defined parameters. We present the first application of local correlation to real-time CC. As in previous studies of locally correlated frequency-domain CC, traditional local correlation schemes are of limited utility for field-dependent properties; however, a perturbation-aware scheme proves promising. A detailed analysis of the amplitude dynamics suggests that the main challenge is a strong time dependence of the wave function sparsity.

Converging high-level coupled-cluster energetics via adaptive selection of excitation manifolds driven by moment expansions

A novel approach to rapidly converging high-level coupled-cluster (CC) energetics in an automated fashion is proposed. The key idea is an adaptive selection of excitation manifolds defining higher--than--two-body components of the cluster operator inspired by CC(P;Q) moment expansions. The usefulness of the resulting methodology is illustrated by molecular examples where the goal is to recover the electronic energies obtained using the CC method with a full treatment of singly, doubly, and triply excited clusters (CCSDT) when the noniterative triples corrections to CCSD fail.

A reduced cost four-component relativistic coupled cluster method based on natural spinors

We present the theory, implementation, and benchmark results for a frozen natural spinors based reduced cost four-component relativistic coupled cluster method. The natural spinors are obtained by diagonalizing the one-body reduced density matrix from a relativistic second-order Møller-Plesset calculation based on a four-component Dirac-Coulomb Hamiltonian. The correlation energy in the coupled cluster method converges more rapidly with respect to the size of the virtual space in the frozen natural spinor basis than that observed in the standard canonical spinors obtained from the Dirac-Hartree-Fock calculation. The convergence of properties is not smooth in the frozen natural spinor basis. However, the inclusion of the perturbative correction smoothens the convergence of the properties with respect to the size of the virtual space in the frozen natural spinor basis and greatly reduces the truncation errors in both energy and property calculations. The accuracy of the frozen natural spinor based coupled cluster methods can be controlled by a single threshold and is a black box to use.

High-level coupled-cluster energetics by merging moment expansions with selected configuration interaction

Inspired by our earlier semi-stochastic work aimed at converging high-level coupled-cluster (CC) energetics [J. E. Deustua, J. Shen, and P. Piecuch, Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 223003 (2017) and J. E. Deustua, J. Shen, and P. Piecuch, J. Chem. Phys. 154, 124103 (2021)], we propose a novel form of the CC(P; Q) theory in which the stochastic Quantum Monte Carlo propagations, used to identify dominant higher-than-doubly excited determinants, are replaced by the selected configuration interaction (CI) approach using the perturbative selection made iteratively (CIPSI) algorithm. The advantages of the resulting CIPSI-driven CC(P; Q) methodology are illustrated by a few molecular examples, including the dissociation of F₂ and the automerization of cyclobutadiene, where we recover the electronic energies corresponding to the CC calculations with a full treatment of singles, doubles, and triples based on the information extracted from compact CI wave functions originating from relatively inexpensive Hamiltonian diagonalizations.

Is Externally Corrected Coupled Cluster Always Better Than the Underlying Truncated Configuration Interaction?

The short answer to the question in the title is "no". We identify classes of truncated configuration interaction (CI) wave functions for which the externally corrected coupled-cluster (ec-CC) approach using the three-body (T₃) and four-body (T₄) components of the cluster operator extracted from CI does not improve the results of the underlying CI calculations. Implications of our analysis, illustrated by numerical examples, for the ec-CC computations using truncated and selected CI methods are discussed. We also introduce a novel ec-CC approach using the T₃ and T₄ amplitudes obtained with the selected CI scheme abbreviated as CIPSI, correcting the resulting energies for the missing T₃ correlations not captured by CIPSI with the help of moment expansions similar to those employed in the completely renormalized CC methods.

Dynamical correlation energy of metals in large basis sets from downfolding and composite approaches

Coupled-cluster theory with single and double excitations (CCSD) is a promising ab initio method for the electronic structure of three-dimensional metals, for which second-order perturbation theory (MP2) diverges in the thermodynamic limit. However, due to the high cost and poor convergence of CCSD with respect to basis size, applying CCSD to periodic systems often leads to large basis set errors. In a common "composite" method, MP2 is used to recover the missing dynamical correlation energy through a focal-point correction, but the inadequacy of finite-order perturbation theory for metals raises questions about this approach. Here, we describe how high-energy excitations treated by MP2 can be "downfolded" into a low-energy active space to be treated by CCSD. Comparing how the composite and downfolding approaches perform for the uniform electron gas, we find that the latter converges more quickly with respect to the basis set size. Nonetheless, the composite approach is surprisingly accurate because it removes the problematic MP2 treatment of double excitations near the Fermi surface. Using this method to estimate the CCSD correlation energy in the combined complete basis set and thermodynamic limits, we find that CCSD recovers 85%-90% of the exact correlation energy at r_s = 4. We also test the composite approach with the direct random-phase approximation used in place of MP2, yielding a method that is typically (but not always) more cost effective due to the smaller number of orbitals that need to be included in the more expensive CCSD calculation.

High-level coupled-cluster energetics by Monte Carlo sampling and moment expansions: Further details and comparisons

We recently proposed a novel approach to converging electronic energies equivalent to high-level coupled-cluster (CC) computations by combining the deterministic CC(P;Q) formalism with the stochastic configuration interaction (CI) and CC Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) propagations. This article extends our initial study [J. E. Deustua, J. Shen, and P. Piecuch, Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 223003 (2017)], which focused on recovering the energies obtained with the CC method with singles, doubles, and triples (CCSDT) using the information extracted from full CI QMC and CCSDT-MC, to the CIQMC approaches truncated at triples and quadruples. It also reports our first semi-stochastic CC(P;Q) calculations aimed at converging the energies that correspond to the CC method with singles, doubles, triples, and quadruples (CCSDTQ). The ability of the semi-stochastic CC(P;Q) formalism to recover the CCSDT and CCSDTQ energies, even when electronic quasi-degeneracies and triply and quadruply excited clusters become substantial, is illustrated by a few numerical examples, including the F-F bond breaking in F₂, the automerization of cyclobutadiene, and the double dissociation of the water molecule.

Localized and Delocalized States of a Diamine Cation: Resolution of a Controversy

Recent Rydberg spectroscopy measurements of a diamine molecule, N,N'-dimethylpiperazine (DMP), indicate the existence of a localized electronic state as well as a delocalized electronic state. This implies that the cation, DMP⁺, can similarly have its positive charge either localized on one of the N atoms or delocalized over both. This interpretation of the experiments has, however, been questioned based on coupled cluster calculations. In this article, results of high-level multireference configuration interaction calculations are presented where a localized state of DMP⁺ is indeed found to be present with an energy barrier separating it from the delocalized state. The energy difference between the two states is in excellent agreement with the experimental estimate. The results presented here, therefore, support the original interpretation of the experiments and illustrate a rare shortcoming of CCSD(T), the "gold standard" of quantum chemistry. These results have implications for the development of density functionals, as most functionals fail to produce the localized state.

Psi4 1.4: Open-source software for high-throughput quantum chemistry

PSI4 is a free and open-source ab initio electronic structure program providing implementations of Hartree-Fock, density functional theory, many-body perturbation theory, configuration interaction, density cumulant theory, symmetry-adapted perturbation theory, and coupled-cluster theory. Most of the methods are quite efficient, thanks to density fitting and multi-core parallelism. The program is a hybrid of C++ and Python, and calculations may be run with very simple text files or using the Python API, facilitating post-processing and complex workflows; method developers also have access to most of PSI4's core functionalities via Python. Job specification may be passed using The Molecular Sciences Software Institute (MolSSI) QCSCHEMA data format, facilitating interoperability. A rewrite of our top-level computation driver, and concomitant adoption of the MolSSI QCARCHIVE INFRASTRUCTURE project, makes the latest version of PSI4 well suited to distributed computation of large numbers of independent tasks. The project has fostered the development of independent software components that may be reused in other quantum chemistry programs.

Near-Linear Scaling in DMRG-Based Tailored Coupled Clusters: An Implementation of DLPNO-TCCSD and DLPNO-TCCSD(T)

We present a new implementation of density matrix renormalization group based tailored coupled clusters method (TCCSD), which employs the domain-based local pair natural orbital approach (DLPNO). Compared to the previous local pair natural orbital (LPNO) version of the method, the new implementation is more accurate, offers more favorable scaling, and provides more consistent behavior across the variety of systems. On top of the singles and doubles, we include the perturbative triples correction (T), which is able to retrieve even more dynamic correlation. The methods were tested on three systems: tetramethyleneethane, oxo-Mn(Salen), and iron(II)-porphyrin model. The first two were revisited to assess the performance with respect to LPNO-TCCSD. For oxo-Mn(Salen), we retrieved between 99.8 and 99.9% of the total canonical correlation energy which is an improvement of 0.2% over the LPNO version in less than 63% of the total LPNO runtime. Similar results were obtained for iron(II)-porphyrin. When the perturbative triples correction was employed, irrespective of the active space size or system, the obtained energy differences between two spin states were within the chemical accuracy of 1 kcal/mol using the default DLPNO settings.

Recent developments in the general atomic and molecular electronic structure system

A discussion of many of the recently implemented features of GAMESS (General Atomic and Molecular Electronic Structure System) and LibCChem (the C++ CPU/GPU library associated with GAMESS) is presented. These features include fragmentation methods such as the fragment molecular orbital, effective fragment potential and effective fragment molecular orbital methods, hybrid MPI/OpenMP approaches to Hartree-Fock, and resolution of the identity second order perturbation theory. Many new coupled cluster theory methods have been implemented in GAMESS, as have multiple levels of density functional/tight binding theory. The role of accelerators, especially graphical processing units, is discussed in the context of the new features of LibCChem, as it is the associated problem of power consumption as the power of computers increases dramatically. The process by which a complex program suite such as GAMESS is maintained and developed is considered. Future developments are briefly summarized.

Active space approaches combining coupled-cluster and perturbation theory for ground states and excited states

We evaluate the performance of approaches that combine coupled-cluster and perturbation theory based on a predefined active space of orbitals. Coupled-cluster theory is used to treat excitations that are internal to the active space and perturbation theory is used for all other excitations, which are at least partially external to the active space. We consider a variety of schemes that differ in how the internal and external excitations are coupled. Such approaches are presented for ground states and excited states within the equation-of-motion formalism. Results are given for the ionization potentials and electron affinities of a test set of small molecules and for the correlation energy and band gap of a few periodic solids.

Toward the efficient local tailored coupled cluster approximation and the peculiar case of oxo-Mn(Salen)

We introduce a new implementation of the coupled cluster method with single and double excitations tailored by the matrix product state wave functions (DMRG-TCCSD), which employs the local pair natural orbital (LPNO) approach. By exploiting locality in the coupled cluster stage of the calculation, we were able to remove some of the limitations that hindered the application of the canonical version of the method to larger systems and/or with larger basis sets. We assessed the accuracy of the approximation using two systems: tetramethyleneethane (TME) and oxo-Mn(Salen). Using the default cut-off parameters, we were able to recover over 99.7% and 99.8% of the canonical correlation energy for the triplet and singlet state of TME, respectively. In the case of oxo-Mn(Salen), we found that the amount of retrieved canonical correlation energy depends on the size of the complete active space (CAS)-we retrieved over 99.6% for the larger 27 orbital CAS and over 99.8% for the smaller 22 orbital CAS. The use of LPNO-TCCSD allowed us to perform these calculations up to quadruple-ζ basis set, amounting to 1178 basis functions. Moreover, we examined dependence of the ground state of oxo-Mn(Salen) on the CAS composition. We found that the inclusion of 4d_xy orbital plays an important role in stabilizing the singlet state at the DMRG-CASSCF level via double-shell effect. However, by including dynamic correlation, the ground state was found to be triplet regardless of the size of the basis set or the composition of CAS, which is in agreement with previous findings by canonical DMRG-TCCSD in smaller basis.

Downfolding of many-body Hamiltonians using active-space models: Extension of the sub-system embedding sub-algebras approach to unitary coupled cluster formalisms

In this paper, we discuss the extension of the recently introduced subsystem embedding subalgebra coupled cluster (SES-CC) formalism to unitary CC formalisms. In analogy to the standard single-reference SES-CC formalism, its unitary CC extension allows one to include the dynamical (outside the active space) correlation effects in an SES induced complete active space (CAS) effective Hamiltonian. In contrast to the standard single-reference SES-CC theory, the unitary CC approach results in a Hermitian form of the effective Hamiltonian. Additionally, for the double unitary CC (DUCC) formalism, the corresponding CAS eigenvalue problem provides a rigorous separation of external cluster amplitudes that describe dynamical correlation effects-used to define the effective Hamiltonian-from those corresponding to the internal (inside the active space) excitations that define the components of eigenvectors associated with the energy of the entire system. The proposed formalism can be viewed as an efficient way of downfolding many-electron Hamiltonian to the low-energy model represented by a particular choice of CAS. In principle, this technique can be extended to any type of CAS representing an arbitrary energy window of a quantum system. The Hermitian character of low-dimensional effective Hamiltonians makes them an ideal target for several types of full configuration interaction type eigensolvers. As an example, we also discuss the algebraic form of the perturbative expansions of the effective DUCC Hamiltonians corresponding to composite unitary CC theories and discuss possible algorithms for hybrid classical and quantum computing. Given growing interest in quantum computing, we provide energies for H₂ and Be systems obtained with the quantum phase estimator algorithm available in the Quantum Development Kit for the approximate DUCC Hamiltonians.

Multireference Theories of Electron Correlation Based on the Driven Similarity Renormalization Group

The driven similarity renormalization group (DSRG) provides an alternative way to address the intruder state problem in quantum chemistry. In this review, we discuss recent developments of multireference methods based on the DSRG. We provide a pedagogical introduction to the DSRG and its various extensions and discuss its formal properties in great detail. In addition, we report several illustrative applications of the DSRG to molecular systems.

Diagrammatic Coupled Cluster Monte Carlo

We propose a modified coupled cluster Monte Carlo algorithm that stochastically samples connected terms within the truncated Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff expansion of the similarity-transformed Hamiltonian by construction of coupled cluster diagrams on the fly. Our new approach-diagCCMC-allows propagation to be performed using only the connected components of the similarity-transformed Hamiltonian, greatly reducing the memory cost associated with the stochastic solution of the coupled cluster equations. We show that for perfectly local, noninteracting systems diagCCMC is able to represent the coupled cluster wavefunction with a memory cost that scales linearly with system size. The favorable memory cost is observed with the only assumption of fixed stochastic granularity and is valid for arbitrary levels of coupled cluster theory. Significant reduction in memory cost is also shown to smoothly appear with dissociation of a finite chain of helium atoms. This approach is also shown not to break down in the presence of strong correlation through the example of a stretched nitrogen molecule. Our novel methodology moves the theoretical basis of coupled cluster Monte Carlo closer to deterministic approaches.

Perturbative triples correction to domain-based local pair natural orbital variants of Mukherjee's state specific coupled cluster method

In this article we report an implementation of the perturbative triples correction to Mukherjee's state-specific multireference coupled cluster method based on the domain-based pair natural orbital approach (DLPNO-MkCC). We tested the performance of DLPNO-MkCCSD(T) in calculations involving tetramethyleneethane and isomers of naphthynes. These tests show that more than 97% of triples energy was recovered with respect to the canonical MkCCSD(T) method, which together with the DLPNO-MkCCSD part accounts for about 99.70-99.85% of the total correlation energy. The applicability of the method was demonstrated on calculations of singlet-triplet gaps for several large systems: triangulene, dynemicin A, and a beryllium complex.

Partially linearized external models to active-space coupled-cluster through connected hextuple excitations

Partially linearized external models to active-space coupled-cluster through hextuple excitations, for example, CC{SDtqph}_L , CCSD{tqph}_L , and CCSD{tqph}_hyb, are implemented and compared with the full active-space CCSDtqph. The computational scaling of CCSDtqph coincides with that for the standard coupled-cluster singles and doubles (CCSD), yet with a much large prefactor. The approximate schemes to linearize the external excitations higher than doubles are significantly cheaper than the full CCSDtqph model. These models are applied to investigate the bond dissociation energies of diatomic molecules (HF, F₂ , CuH, and CuF), and the potential energy surfaces of the bond dissociation processes of HF, CuH, H₂ O, and C₂ H₄ . Among the approximate models, CCSD{tqph}_hyb provides very accurate descriptions compared with CCSDtqph for all of the tested systems. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Converging High-Level Coupled-Cluster Energetics by Monte Carlo Sampling and Moment Expansions

We propose a new approach to the determination of accurate electronic energies that are equivalent to the results of high-level coupled-cluster (CC) calculations. The approach is based on merging the CC(P;Q) formalism, which corrects energies obtained with an arbitrary truncation in the cluster operator, with the stochastic configuration interaction and CC ideas. The advantages of the proposed methodology are illustrated by molecular examples, where the goal is to recover the energetics obtained in the CC calculations with a full treatment of singly, doubly, and triply excited clusters.

The multilevel CC3 coupled cluster model

We present an efficient implementation of the closed shell multilevel coupled cluster method where coupled cluster singles and doubles (CCSD) is used for the inactive orbital space and CCSD with perturbative triples (CC3) is employed for the smaller active orbital space. Using Cholesky orbitals, the active space can be spatially localized and the computational cost is greatly reduced compared to full CC3 while retaining the accuracy of CC3 excitation energies. For the small organic molecules considered we achieve up to two orders of magnitude reduction in the computational requirements.