We describe a finite-field approach to compute density response functions, which allows for efficient $G_0W_0$ and $G_0W_0Gamma_0$ calculations beyond the random phase approximation. The method is easily applicable to density functional calculations performed with hybrid functionals. We present results for the electronic properties of molecules and solids and we discuss a general scheme to overcome slow convergence of quasiparticle energies obtained from $G_0W_0Gamma_0$ calculations, as a function of the basis set used to represent the dielectric matrix.
Charged excitations of the oligoacene family of molecules, relevant for astrophysics and technological applications, are widely studied and therefore provide an excellent system for benchmarking theoretical methods. In this work, we evaluate the performance of many-body perturbation theory within the GW approximation relative to new high-quality CCSD(T) reference data for charged excitations of the acenes. We compare GW calculations with a number of hybrid density functional theory starting points and with eigenvalue self-consistency. Special focus is given to elucidating the trend of GW-predicted excitations with molecule length increasing from benzene to hexacene. We find that GW calculations with starting points based on an optimally tuned range-separated hybrid (OTRSH) density functional and eigenvalue self-consistency can yield quantitative ionization potentials for the acenes. However, for larger acenes, the predicted electron affinities can deviate considerably from reference values. Our work paves the way for predictive and cost-effective GW calculations of charged excitations of molecules and identifies certain limitations of current GW methods used in practice for larger molecules.
We develop and implement a formalism which enables calculating the analytical gradients of particle-hole random-phase approximation (RPA) ground-state energy with respect to the atomic positions within the atomic orbital basis set framework. Our approach is based on a localized resolution of identity (LRI) approximation for evaluating the two-electron Coulomb integrals and their derivatives, and the density functional perturbation theory for computing the first-order derivatives of the Kohn-Sham (KS) orbitals and orbital energies. Our implementation allows one to relax molecular structures at the RPA level using both Gaussian-type orbitals (GTOs) and numerical atomic orbitals (NAOs). Benchmark calculations show that our approach delivers high numerical precision compared to previous implementations. A careful assessment of the quality of RPA geometries for small molecules reveals that post-KS RPA systematically overestimates the bond lengths. We furthermore optimized the geometries of the four low-lying water hexamers -- cage, prism, cyclic and book isomers, and determined the energy hierarchy of these four isomers using RPA. The obtained RPA energy ordering is in good agreement with that yielded by the coupled cluster method with single, double and perturbative triple excitations, despite that the dissociation energies themselves are appreciably underestimated. The underestimation of the dissociation energies by RPA is well corrected by the renormalized single excitation correction.
We present quasiparticle (QP) energies from fully self-consistent $GW$ (sc$GW$) calculations for a set of prototypical semiconductors and insulators within the framework of the projector-augmented wave methodology. To obtain converged results, both finite basis-set corrections and $k$-point corrections are included, and a simple procedure is suggested to deal with the singularity of the Coulomb kernel in the long-wavelength limit, the so called head correction. It is shown that the inclusion of the head corrections in the sc$GW$ calculations is critical to obtain accurate QP energies with a reasonable $k$-point set. We first validate our implementation by presenting detailed results for the selected case of diamond, and then we discuss the converged QP energies, in particular the band gaps, for a set of gapped compounds and compare them to single-shot $G_0W_0$, QP self-consistent $GW$, and previously available sc$GW$ results as well as experimental results.
We discuss the analytic and diagrammatic structure of ionization potential (IP) and electron affinity (EA) equation-of-motion coupled-cluster (EOM-CC) theory, in order to put it on equal footing with the prevalent $GW$ approximation. The comparison is most straightforward for the time-ordered one-particle Greens function, and we show that the Greens function calculated by EOM-CC with single and double excitations (EOM-CCSD) includes fewer ring diagrams at higher order than does the $GW$ approximation, due to the formers unbalanced treatment of time-ordering. However, the EOM-CCSD Greens function contains a large number of vertex corrections, including ladder diagrams, mixed ring-ladder diagrams, and exchange diagrams. By including triple excitations, the EOM-CCSDT Greens function includes all diagrams contained in the $GW$ approximation, along with many high-order vertex corrections. In the same language, we discuss a number of common approximations to the EOM-CCSD equations, many of which can be classified as elimination of diagrams. Finally, we present numerical results by calculating the principal charged excitations energies of the molecules contained in the so-called $GW$100 test set [J. Chem. Theory Comput. 2015, 11, 5665-5687]. We argue that (in molecules) exchange is as important as screening, advocating for a Hartree-Fock reference and second-order exchange in the self-energy.
The many-body theory of interacting electrons poses an intrinsically difficult problem that requires simplifying assumptions. For the determination of electronic screening properties of the Coulomb interaction, the Random Phase Approximation (RPA) provides such a simplification. Here, we explicitly show that this approximation is justified for band structures with sizeable band gaps. This is when the electronic states responsible for the screening are energetically far away from the Fermi level, which is equivalent to a short electronic propagation length of these states. The RPA contains exactly those diagrams in which the classical Coulomb interaction covers all distances, whereas neglected vertex corrections involve quantum tunneling through the barrier formed by the band gap. Our analysis of electron-electron interactions provides a real-space analogy to Migdals theorem on the smallness of vertex corrections in electron-phonon problems. An important application is the increasing use of constrained Random Phase Approximation (cRPA) calculations of effective interactions. We find that their usage of Kohn-Sham energies already accounts for the leading local (excitonic) vertex correction in insulators.