No Arabic abstract
Following our recent work on the benzene molecule [href{https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0027617}{J.~Chem.~Phys.~textbf{153}, 176101 (2020)}], itself motivated by the blind challenge of Eriksen textit{et al.} [href{https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.0c02621}{J.~Phys.~Chem.~Lett.~textbf{11}, 8922 (2020)}] on the same system, we report accurate full configuration interaction (FCI) frozen-core correlation energy estimates for twelve five- and six-membered ring molecules in the standard correlation-consistent double-$zeta$ Dunning basis set (cc-pVDZ). Our FCI correlation energy estimates, with estimated error smaller than 1 millihartree, are based on energetically optimized-orbital selected configuration interaction (SCI) calculations performed with the textit{Configuration Interaction using a Perturbative Selection made Iteratively} (CIPSI) algorithm. Having at our disposal these accurate reference energies, the respective performance and convergence properties of several popular and widely-used families of single-reference quantum chemistry methods are investigated. In particular, we study the convergence properties of i) the M{o}ller-Plesset perturbation series up to fifth-order (MP2, MP3, MP4, and MP5), ii) the iterative approximate coupled-cluster series CC2, CC3, and CC4, and iii) the coupled-cluster series CCSD, CCSDT, and CCSDTQ. The performance of the ground-state gold standard CCSD(T) as well as the completely renormalized CC model, CR-CC(2,3), are also investigated.
We propose the use of preconditioning in FCIQMC which, in combination with perturbative estimators, greatly increases the efficiency of the algorithm. The use of preconditioning allows a time step close to unity to be used (without time-step errors), provided that multiple spawning attempts are made per walker. We show that this approach substantially reduces statistical noise on perturbative corrections to initiator error, which improve the accuracy of FCIQMC but which can suffer from significant noise in the original scheme. Therefore, the use of preconditioning and perturbatively-corrected estimators in combination leads to a significantly more efficient algorithm. In addition, a simpler approach to sampling variational and perturbative estimators in FCIQMC is presented, which also allows the variance of the energy to be calculated. These developments are investigated and applied to benzene (30e,108o), an example where accurate treatment is not possible with the original method.
A full coupled-cluster expansion suitable for sparse algebraic operations is developed by expanding the commutators of the Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff series explicitly for cluster operators in binary representations. A full coupled-cluster reduction that is capable of providing very accurate solutions of the many-body Schrodinger equation is then initiated employing screenings to the projection manifold and commutator operations. The projection manifold is iteratively updated through the single commutators $leftlangle kappa right| [hat H,hat T]left| 0 rightrangle$ comprised of the primary clusters $hat T_{lambda}$ with substantial contribution to the connectivity. The operation of the commutators is further reduced by introducing a correction, taking into account the so-called exclusion principle violating terms, that provides fast and near-variational convergence in many cases.
An adaptation of the full configuration interaction quantum Monte Carlo (FCIQMC) method is presented, for correlated electron problems containing heavy elements and the presence of significant relativistic effects. The modified algorithm allows for the sampling of the four-component spinors of the Dirac--Coulomb(--Breit) Hamiltonian within the relativistic no-pair approximation. The loss of spin symmetry and the general requirement for complex-valued Hamiltonian matrix elements are the most immediate considerations in expanding the scope of FCIQMC into the relativistic domain, and the alternatives for their efficient implementation are motivated and demonstrated. For the canonical correlated four-component chemical benchmark application of Thallium Hydride, we show that the necessary modifications do not particularly adversely affect the convergence of the systematic (initiator) error to the exact correlation energy for FCIQMC calculations, which is primarily dictated by the sparsity of the wave function, allowing the computational effort to somewhat bypass the formal increases in Hilbert space dimension for these problems. We apply the method to the larger problem of the spectroscopic constants of Tin Oxide, correlating 28 electrons in 122 Kramers-paired spinors, finding good agreement with experimental and prior theoretical relativistic studies.
Full Configuration Interaction Quantum Monte Carlo (FCIQMC) has been effectively applied to very large configuration interaction (CI) problems, and was recently adapted for use as an active space solver and combined with orbital optimisation. In this work, we detail an approach within FCIQMC to allow for efficient sampling of fully internally-contracted multireference perturbation theories within the same stochastic framework. Schemes are described to allow for the close control over the resolution of stochastic sampling of the effective higher-body intermediates within the active space. It is found that while CASPT2 seems less amenable to a stochastic reformulation, NEVPT2 is far more stable, requiring a similar number of walkers to converge the NEVPT2 expectation values as to converge the underlying CI problem. We demonstrate the application of the stochastic approach to the computation of NEVPT2 within a (24,24) active space in a biologically relevant system, and show that small numbers of walkers are sufficient for a faithful sampling of the NEVPT2 energy to chemical accuracy, despite the active space already exceeding the limits of practicality for traditional approaches. This raises prospects of an efficient stochastic solver for multireference chemical problems requiring large active spaces, with an accurate treatment of external orbitals.
We present a Flexible Ansatz for N-body Configuration Interaction (FANCI) that includes any multideterminant wavefunction. This ansatz is a generalization of the Configuration Interaction (CI) wavefunction, where the coefficients are replaced by a specified function of certain parameters. By making an appropriate choice for this function, we can reproduce popular wavefunction structures like CI, Coupled-Cluster, Tensor Network States, and geminal-product wavefunctions. The universality of this framework suggests a programming structure that allows for the easy construction and optimization of arbitrary wavefunctions. Here, we will discuss the structures of the FANCI framework and its implications for wavefunction properties, particularly accuracy, cost, and size-consistency. We demonstrate the flexibility of this framework by reconstructing popular wavefunction ans{a}tze and modifying them to construct novel wavefunction forms. FANCI provides a powerful framework for exploring, developing, and testing new wavefunction forms.