Orbital relaxation and the third-order induction energy in symmetry-adapted perturbation theory

Abstract

Theoretical investigations of the induction interaction between closed-shell molecules which fully account for the orbital relaxation effects are presented. Explicit expressions for the third-order induction energy in terms of molecular integrals and orbital energies are given and implemented within the sapt2008 program for symmetry-adapted perturbation theory (SAPT) calculations. Numerical investigations for the He–He, He–LiH, Ar–Ar, H2–CO, H2O–H2O, and H2O–NH3 model dimers show that the orbital relaxation increases the third-order induction interaction by 15 to 50% at near-equilibrium geometries, with the largest effect observed for complexes involving highly polar monomers. At large intermonomer separations, the relaxed third-order induction energy perfectly recovers the difference $$\delta E^{\rm HF}_{\rm int}$$ between the Hartree–Fock interaction energy and the sum of the uncorrelated SAPT contributions through second order in the intermolecular interaction operator. At the near-equilibrium geometries, the sum of the relaxed third-order induction and exchange-induction energies reproduces, however, only a small fraction (6 to 15%) of $$\delta E^{\rm HF}_{\rm int}$$ for the nonpolar systems and about 40 to 60% for the polar ones. A comparison of the complete SAPT calculations with the coupled-cluster treatment with single, double, and noniterative triple excitations [CCSD(T)] suggests that the pure SAPT approach with all the available third-order corrections is more accurate for nonpolar systems while for the polar ones the hybrid approach including $$\delta E^{\rm HF}_{\rm int}$$ gives better results.