Atomic Correlation Energies Research Articles

Basis-Set-Error-Free Random-Phase Approximation Correlation Energies for Atoms Based on the Sternheimer Equation.

The finite basis set errors for all-electron random-phase approximation (RPA) correlation energy calculations are analyzed for isolated atomic systems. We show that, within the resolution-of-identity (RI) RPA framework, the major source of the basis set errors is the incompleteness of the single-particle atomic orbitals used to expand the Kohn-Sham eigenstates, instead of the auxiliary basis set (ABS) to represent the density response function χ0 and the bare Coulomb operator v. By solving the Sternheimer equation for the first-order wave function on a dense radial grid, we are able to eliminate the major error─the incompleteness error of the single-particle atomic basis set─for atomic RPA calculations. The error stemming from a finite ABS can be readily rendered vanishingly small by increasing the size of the ABS, or by iteratively determining the eigenmodes of the χ0v operator. The variational property of the RI-RPA correlation energy can be further exploited to optimize the ABS in order to achieve fast convergence of the RI-RPA correlation energy. These numerical techniques enable us to obtain basis-set-error-free RPA correlation energies for atoms, and in this work, such energies for atoms from H to Kr are presented. The implications of the numerical techniques developed in the present work for addressing the basis set issue for molecules and solids are discussed.

Exploring the statically screenedG3W2correction to theGWself-energy: Charged excitations and total energies of finite systems

Electron correlation in finite and extended systems is often described in an effective single-particle framework within the $GW$ approximation. Here, we use the statically screened second-order exchange contribution to the self-energy ($G3W2$) to calculate a perturbative correction to the $GW$ self-energy. We use this correction to calculate total correlation energies of atoms, relative energies, as well as charged excitations of a wide range of molecular systems. We show that the second-order correction improves correlation energies with respect to the RPA and also improves relative energies for many, but not all considered systems. While the full $G3W2$ contribution does not give consistent improvements over $GW$, taking the average of $GW$ and $GW + G3W2$ generally gives excellent results. Improvements over quasiparticle self-consistent $GW$, which we show to give very accurate charged excitations in small and medium molecules by itself, are only minor. $G_0W_0$ quasiparticle energies evaluated with eigenvalue and orbitals from range-separated hybrids, however, are tremendously improved upon: The second-order corrected $G_0W_0$ outperforms all existing $GW$ methods for the systems considered herein and also does not come with substantially increased computational cost compared to $G_0W_0$ for systems with up to 100 atoms.

Simple hydrogenic estimates for the exchange and correlation energies of atoms and atomic ions, with implications for density functional theory.

Exact density functionals for the exchange and correlation energies are approximated in practical calculations for the ground-state electronic structure of a many-electron system. An important exact constraint for the construction of approximations is to recover the correct non-relativistic large-Z expansions for the corresponding energies of neutral atoms with atomic number Z and electron number N = Z, which are correct to the leading order (-0.221Z5/3 and -0.021Z ln Z, respectively) even in the lowest-rung or local density approximation. We find that hydrogenic densities lead to Ex(N, Z) ≈ -0.354N2/3Z (as known before only for Z ≫ N ≫ 1) and Ec ≈ -0.02N ln N. These asymptotic estimates are most correct for atomic ions with large N and Z ≫ N, but we find that they are qualitatively and semi-quantitatively correct even for small N and N ≈ Z. The large-N asymptotic behavior of the energy is pre-figured in small-N atoms and atomic ions, supporting the argument that widely predictive approximate density functionals should be designed to recover the correct asymptotics. It is shown that the exact Kohn-Sham correlation energy, when calculated from the pure ground-state wavefunction, should have no contribution proportional to Z in the Z → ∞ limit for any fixed N.

Quantum orbital-optimized unitary coupled cluster methods in the strongly correlated regime: Can quantum algorithms outperform their classical equivalents?

The Coupled Cluster (CC) method is used to compute the electronic correlation energy in atoms and molecules and often leads to highly accurate results. However, due to its single-reference nature, standard CC in its projected form fails to describe quantum states characterized by strong electronic correlations and multi-reference projective methods become necessary. On the other hand, quantum algorithms for the solution of many-electron problems have also emerged recently. The quantum unitary variant of CC (UCC) with singles and doubles (q-UCCSD) is a popular wavefunction Ansatz for the variational quantum eigensolver algorithm. The variational nature of this approach can lead to significant advantages compared to its classical equivalent in the projected form, in particular, for the description of strong electronic correlation. However, due to the large number of gate operations required in q-UCCSD, approximations need to be introduced in order to make this approach implementable in a state-of-the-art quantum computer. In this work, we evaluate several variants of the standard q-UCCSD Ansatz in which only a subset of excitations is included. In particular, we investigate the singlet and pair q-UCCD approaches combined with orbital optimization. We show that these approaches can capture the dissociation/distortion profiles of challenging systems, such as H4, H2O, and N2 molecules, as well as the one-dimensional periodic Fermi-Hubbard chain. These results promote the future use of q-UCC methods for the solution of challenging electronic structure problems in quantum chemistry.

Accurate Atomic Correlation and Total Energies for Correlation Consistent Effective Core Potentials.

Very recently, we introduced a set of correlation consistent effective core potentials (ccECPs) constructed within full many-body approaches. By employing significantly more accurate correlated approaches, we were able to reach a new level of accuracy for the resulting effective core Hamiltonians. We also strived for simplicity of use and easy transferability into a variety of electronic structure methods in quantum chemistry and condensed matter physics. Here, as a reference for future use, we present exact or nearly exact total energy calculations for these ccECPs. The calculations cover H-Kr elements and are based on the state-of-the-art configuration interaction (CI), coupled-cluster (CC), and quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) calculations with systematically eliminated/improved errors. In particular, we carry out full CI/CCSD(T)/CCSDT(Q) calculations with cc-pVnZ with up to n = 6 basis sets and we estimate the complete basis set limits. Using combinations of these approaches, we achieved an accuracy of ≈1-10 mHa for K-Zn atoms and ≈0.1-0.3 mHa for all other elements-within about 1% or better of the ccECP total correlation energies. We also estimate the corresponding kinetic energies within the feasible limit of full CI calculations. In order to provide data for QMC calculations, we include fixed-node diffusion Monte Carlo energies for each element that give quantitative insights into the fixed-node biases for single-reference trial wave functions. The results offer a clear benchmark for future high-accuracy calculations in a broad variety of correlated wave function methods such as CI and CC as well is in stochastic approaches such as real space sampling QMC.

Understanding electron correlation energy through density functional theory

A curious behavior of electron correlation energy is explored. Namely, the correlation energy is the energy that tends to drive the system toward that of the uniform electron gas. As such, the energy assumes its maximum value when a gradient of density is zero. As the gradient increases, the energy is diminished by a gradient suppressing factor, designed to attenuate the energy from its maximum value similar to the shape of a bell curve. Based on this behavior, we constructed a very simple mathematical formula that predicted the correlation energy of atoms and molecules. Combined with our proposed exchange energy functional, we calculated the correlation, the total, the ionization, and the atomization energies of test atoms and molecules; and despite the unique simplicities, the functionals’ accuracies are in the top tier performance, competitive to the B3LYP, BLYP, PBE, TPSS, and M11.

Exact separation of radial and angular correlation energies in two-electron atoms

Partitioning of helium atom’s correlation energy into radial and angular contributions, although of fundamental interest, has eluded critical scrutiny. Conventionally, radial and angular correlation energies of helium atom are defined for its ground state as deviations, from Hartree-Fock and exact values, of the energy obtained using a purely radial wavefunction devoid of any explicit dependence on the interelectronic distance. Here, we show this rationale to associate the contribution from radial-angular coupling entirely to the angular part underestimating the radial one, thereby also incorrectly predict non-vanishing residual radial probability densities. We derive analytic matrix elements for the high-precision Hylleraas basis set framework to seamlessly uncouple the angular correlation energy from its radial counterpart. The resulting formula agrees with numerical cubature yielding precise purely angular correlation energies for the ground as well as excited states. Our calculations indicate 60.2% of helium’s correlation energy to arise from strictly radial interactions; when excluding the contribution from the radial-angular coupling, this value drops to 41.3%.

Correlation energy functionals from adiabatic connection formalism

We propose a modified interaction strength interpolation method that is more robust in the quasi-two-dimensional density regime and more accurate than the original method [M. Seidl et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 5070 (2000)] for the correlation energy and adiabatic integrand of small atoms. This method also allows us to construct correlation energy densities as simple local interpolations along the adiabatic connection. As an example, we develop a generalized gradient approximation correlation functional that performs in line with, and often better than, popular semilocal correlation functionals.

Correlation energies for many-electron atoms with explicitly correlated Slater functions

In this work we propose a composite method for accurate calculation of the energies of many-electron atoms. The dominant contribution to the energy (pair energies) are calculated by using explicitly correlated factorizable coupled cluster theory. Instead of the usual Gaussian-type geminals for the expansion of the pair functions, we employ a two-electron Hylleraas basis set and discuss the advantages of the latter approach, e.g., a small number of nonlinear parameters that need to be optimized. The remaining contributions to the energy are calculated within the algebraic approximation by using large one-electron basis sets composed of Slater-type orbitals. The method is tested for the beryllium atom where an accuracy better than $1\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ is obtained. We discuss in detail possible sources of the error and estimate the uncertainty in each energy component. Finally, we consider possible strategies to improve the accuracy of the method by 1--2 orders of magnitude and apply it to larger atoms.

Bethe-Salpeter correlation energies of atoms and molecules.

A variety of approaches are presented for the computation of atomic and molecular correlation energies based on the Bethe-Salpeter equation in the framework of the adiabatic-connection fluctuation-dissipation theorem. The performance of the approaches is assessed by computing the total energies of the atoms H-Ne and the atomization energies of the high-accuracy extrapolated ab initio thermochemistry set of small molecules as well as by determining the bond lengths and harmonic vibrational frequencies of the metal monoxides MO with M=Ca-Zn.

Fitting a round peg into a round hole: Asymptotically correcting the generalized gradient approximation for correlation.

We consider the implications of the Lieb-Simon limit for correlation in density functional theory. In this limit, exemplified by the scaling of neutral atoms to large atomic number, local density approximation (LDA) becomes relatively exact, and the leading correction to this limit for correlation has recently been determined for neutral atoms. We use the leading correction to the LDA and the properties of the real-space cutoff of the exchange-correlation hole to design, based upon Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE) correlation, an asymptotically corrected generalized gradient approximation (acGGA) correlation which becomes more accurate per electron for atoms with increasing atomic number. When paired with a similar correction for exchange, this acGGA satisfies more exact conditions than PBE. Combined with the known rs -dependence of the gradient expansion for correlation, this correction accurately reproduces correlation energies of closed-shell atoms down to Be. We test this acGGA for atoms and molecules, finding consistent improvement over PBE but also showing that optimal global hybrids of acGGA do not improve upon PBE0 and are similar to meta-GGA values. We discuss the relevance of these results to Jacob's ladder of non-empirical density functional construction.

Hartree-Fock implementation using a Laguerre-based wave function for the ground state and correlation energies of two-electron atoms.

An implementation of the Hartree-Fock (HF) method using a Laguerre-based wave function is described and used to accurately study the ground state of two-electron atoms in the fixed nucleus approximation, and by comparison with fully correlated (FC) energies, used to determine accurate electron correlation energies. A variational parameter A is included in the wave function and is shown to rapidly increase the convergence of the energy. The one-electron integrals are solved by series solution and an analytical form is found for the two-electron integrals. This methodology is used to produce accurate wave functions, energies and expectation values for the helium isoelectronic sequence, including at low nuclear charge just prior to electron detachment. Additionally, the critical nuclear charge for binding two electrons within the HF approach is calculated and determined to be ZHFC=1.031 177 528.This article is part of the theme issue 'Modern theoretical chemistry'.

Accurate and balanced anisotropic Gaussian type orbital basis sets for atoms in strong magnetic fields.

In high magnetic field calculations, anisotropic Gaussian type orbital (AGTO) basis functions are capable of reconciling the competing demands of the spherically symmetric Coulombic interaction and cylindrical magnetic (B field) confinement. However, the best available a priori procedure for composing highly accurate AGTO sets for atoms in a strong B field [W. Zhu et al., Phys. Rev. A 90, 022504 (2014)] yields very large basis sets. Their size is problematical for use in any calculation with unfavorable computational cost scaling. Here we provide an alternative constructive procedure. It is based upon analysis of the underlying physics of atoms in B fields that allow identification of several principles for the construction of AGTO basis sets. Aided by numerical optimization and parameter fitting, followed by fine tuning of fitting parameters, we devise formulae for generating accurate AGTO basis sets in an arbitrary B field. For the hydrogen iso-electronic sequence, a set depends on B field strength, nuclear charge, and orbital quantum numbers. For multi-electron systems, the basis set formulae also include adjustment to account for orbital occupations. Tests of the new basis sets for atoms H through C (1 ≤ Z ≤ 6) and ions Li+, Be+, and B+, in a wide B field range (0 ≤ B ≤ 2000 a.u.), show an accuracy better than a few μhartree for single-electron systems and a few hundredths to a few mHs for multi-electron atoms. The relative errors are similar for different atoms and ions in a large B field range, from a few to a couple of tens of millionths, thereby confirming rather uniform accuracy across the nuclear charge Z and B field strength values. Residual basis set errors are two to three orders of magnitude smaller than the electronic correlation energies in multi-electron atoms, a signal of the usefulness of the new AGTO basis sets in correlated wavefunction or density functional calculations for atomic and molecular systems in an external strong B field.

Exchange-correlation energies of atoms from efficient density functionals: influence of the electron density

The primary goal of Kohn–Sham density functional theory is to evaluate the exchange-correlation contribution to electronic properties. However, the accuracy of a density functional can be affected by the electron density. Here we apply the nonempirical Tao–Mo (TM) semilocal functional to study the influence of the electron density on the exchange and correlation energies of atoms and ions, and compare the results with the commonly used nonempirical semilocal functionals local spin-density approximation (LSDA), Perdew–Burke–Ernzerhof (PBE), Tao–Perdew–Staroverov–Scuseria (TPSS), and hybrid functional PBE0. We find that the spin-restricted Hartree–Fock density yields the exchange and correlation energies in good agreement with the Optimized Effective Potential method, particularly for spherical atoms and ions. However, the errors of these semilocal and hybrid functionals become larger for self-consistent densities. We further find that the quality of the electron density have greater effect on the exchange-correlation energies of kinetic energy density-dependent meta-GGA functionals TPSS and TM than on those of the LSDA and GGA, and therefore, should have greater influence on the performance of meta-GGA functionals. Finally, we show that the influence of the density quality on PBE0 is slightly reduced, compared to that of PBE, due to the exact mixing.

The effects of higher orders of perturbation theory on the correlation energy of atoms and bonds in molecules

AbstractWe examine, for the first time, the effects of higher orders of Møller–Plesset perturbation theory on the individual atoms within a molecule and the bonds between them, via the topological energy partitioning method of interacting quantum atoms. In real terms (i.e., not by absolute value) MP3 decreases the correlation energy of a bond, and MP4SDQ also decreases the energy of the atoms at either end of the bond. In addition, we investigated long‐range through‐space dispersive effects on a H2 oligomer. Overall, MP3 is the largest correction to the correlation energy, and most of that energy is allocated to chemical bonds, reducing their values in actual terms. The MP4SDQ bond correlation correction, despite being relatively small, tends to have two effects: (i) for small or negative correlation energies MP4SDQ tends to decrease the bond correlation values even more, and (ii) for large (positive) bond correlation energies MP4SDQ tends to restore the bond correlation energies from the MP3 back toward the MP2 values. Furthermore, each individual part of a molecule or complex (atom or bond) has a specific convergence pattern for the MPn series: through‐space interactions converge at MP2 but bonds converge at MP3 level. The atomic correlation energy appears to head toward convergence at the MP4 level.

Locality of correlation in density functional theory.

The Hohenberg-Kohn density functional was long ago shown to reduce to the Thomas-Fermi (TF) approximation in the non-relativistic semiclassical (or large-Z) limit for all matter, i.e., the kinetic energy becomes local. Exchange also becomes local in this limit. Numerical data on the correlation energy of atoms support the conjecture that this is also true for correlation, but much less relevant to atoms. We illustrate how expansions around a large particle number are equivalent to local density approximations and their strong relevance to density functional approximations. Analyzing highly accurate atomic correlation energies, we show that EC → -AC ZlnZ + BCZ as Z → ∞, where Z is the atomic number, AC is known, and we estimate BC to be about 37 mhartree. The local density approximation yields AC exactly, but a very incorrect value for BC, showing that the local approximation is less relevant for the correlation alone. This limit is a benchmark for the non-empirical construction of density functional approximations. We conjecture that, beyond atoms, the leading correction to the local density approximation in the large-Z limit generally takes this form, but with BC a functional of the TF density for the system. The implications for the construction of approximate density functionals are discussed.

Numerical solution of the Sinanoǧlu equation using a multicentre radial-angular grid

ABSTRACTThe pair functions that minimise the correlation energy of second-order many-body perturbation (MP2) theory (the Hylleraas functional) are obtained as solutions to the corresponding Sinanoǧlu equation by expanding them on a six-dimensional, multicentre, radial-angular grid of two electrons. Cusps in the pair functions at the nuclei are described numerically accurately by the multicentre grid. A cusp in each singlet pair function at the coalescence of the two electrons is taken into account analytically by a correlation factor. With a grid of approximately 10,000 points per atom, the MP2 correlation energies for atoms and polyatomic molecules are obtained usually within 0.1 mEh of the complete-basis-set results. The correlation factor, auxiliary basis functions, and a judicious choice of integration algorithms are all necessary to stabilise the grid-based MP2 and underlying Hartree–Fock (HF) calculations. The auxiliary basis set, in particular, largely restores the hermiticity and diagonal dominance of the Fock matrix as well as furnishes virtual orbitals used in a resolution-of-the-identity approximation to lower the dimension of some integrals. The results of the grid-based HF and MP2 calculations without a correlation factor are found to suffer from large, nonsystematic errors frequently.

Dielectric Matrix Formulation of Correlation Energies in the Random Phase Approximation: Inclusion of Exchange Effects.

Starting from the general expression for the ground state correlation energy in the adiabatic-connection fluctuation-dissipation theorem (ACFDT) framework, it is shown that the dielectric matrix formulation, which is usually applied to calculate the direct random phase approximation (dRPA) correlation energy, can be used for alternative RPA expressions including exchange effects. Within this famework, the ACFDT analog of the second order screened exchange (SOSEX) approximation leads to a logarithmic formula for the correlation energy similar to the direct RPA expression. Alternatively, the contribution of the exchange can be included in the kernel used to evaluate the response functions. In this case, the use of an approximate kernel is crucial to simplify the formalism and to obtain a correlation energy in logarithmic form. Technical details of the implementation of these methods are discussed, and it is shown that one can take advantage of density fitting or Cholesky decomposition techniques to improve the computational efficiency; a discussion on the numerical quadrature made on the frequency variable is also provided. A series of test calculations on atomic correlation energies and molecular reaction energies shows that exchange effects are instrumental for improvement over direct RPA results.

Coupled-cluster based basis sets for valence correlation calculations.

Novel basis sets are generated that target the description of valence correlation in atoms H through Ar. The new contraction coefficients are obtained according to the Atomic Natural Orbital (ANO) procedure from CCSD(T) (coupled-cluster singles and doubles with perturbative triples correction) density matrices starting from the primitive functions of Dunning et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 90, 1007 (1989); ibid. 98, 1358 (1993); ibid. 100, 2975 (1993)] (correlation consistent polarized valence X-tuple zeta, cc-pVXZ). The exponents of the primitive Gaussian functions are subject to uniform scaling in order to ensure satisfaction of the virial theorem for the corresponding atoms. These new sets, named ANO-VT-XZ (Atomic Natural Orbital Virial Theorem X-tuple Zeta), have the same number of contracted functions as their cc-pVXZ counterparts in each subshell. The performance of these basis sets is assessed by the evaluation of the contraction errors in four distinct computations: correlation energies in atoms, probing the density in different regions of space via ⟨r(n)⟩ (-3 ≤ n ≤ 3) in atoms, correlation energies in diatomic molecules, and the quality of fitting potential energy curves as measured by spectroscopic constants. All energy calculations with ANO-VT-QZ have contraction errors within "chemical accuracy" of 1 kcal/mol, which is not true for cc-pVQZ, suggesting some improvement compared to the correlation consistent series of Dunning and co-workers.

Lattice Boltzmann Model for Electronic Structure Simulations

Recently, a new connection between density functional theory and kinetic theory has been proposed. In particular, it was shown that the Kohn-Sham (KS) equations can be reformulated as a macroscopic limit of the steady-state solution of a suitable single-particle kinetic equation. By using a discrete version of this new formalism, the exchange and correlation energies of simple atoms and the geometrical configuration of the methane molecule were calculated accurately. Here, we discuss the main ideas behind the lattice kinetic approach to electronic structure computations, offer some considerations for prospective extensions, and also show additional numerical results, namely the geometrical configuration of the water molecule.