The reduced-density-matrix method is an promising candidate for the next generation electronic structure calculation method; it is equivalent to solve the Schrödinger equation for the ground state. The number of variables is the same as a four electron system and constant regardless of the electrons in the system. Thus many researchers have been dreaming of a much simpler method for quantum mechanics. In this chapter, we give a overview of the reduced-density matrix method; details of the theories, methods, history, and some new computational results. Typically, the results are comparable to the CCSD(T) which is a sophisticated traditional approach in quantum chemistry.
Variational approach for the electronic structure calculation on the second-order reduced density matrices and the N-representability problem
The reduced-density-matrix method is an promising candidate for the next generation electronic structure calculation method; it is equivalent to solve the Schrödinger equation for the ground state. The number of variables is the same as a four electron system and constant regardless of the electrons in the system. Thus many researchers have been dreaming of a much simpler method for quantum mechanics. In this chapter, we give a overview of the reduced-density matrix method; details of the theories, methods, history, and some new computational results. Typically, the results are comparable to the CCSD(T) which is a sophisticated traditional approach in quantum chemistry.
The methods of quantum chemistry and solid state theory to solve the many-body problem are reviewed. We start with the definitions of reduced density matrices, their properties (contraction sum rules, spectral resolutions, cumulant expansion, N-representability), and their determining equations (contracted Schrödinger equations) and we summarize recent extensions and generalizations of the traditional quantum chemical methods, of the density functional theory, and of the quasi-particle theory: from finite to extended systems (incremental method), from density to density matrix (density matrix functional theory), from weak to strong correlation (dynamical mean field theory), from homogeneous (Kimball-Overhauser approach) to inhomogeneous and finite systems. Measures of the correlation strength are discussed. The cumulant two-body reduced density matrix proves to be a key quantity. Its spectral resolution contains geminals, being possibly the solutions of an approximate effective two-body equation, and the idea is sketched of how its contraction sum rule can be used for a variational treatment.
For 50 years, progress toward the direct calculation of the ground-state two-electron reduced density matrix (2-RDM) was stymied from an inability to constrain the 2-RDM to represent an N-electron wave function. Recent advances in theory and optimization have realized the direct calculation of the 2-RDM. A variational 2-RDM procedure, using first-order semidefinite programming, has been shown to capture multireference correlation effects important at nonequilibrium geometries [Mazziotti, Phys. Rev. Lett. 2004, 93, No. 213001]. This method emerged from research on a nonvariational calculation of the 2-RDM by the contracted Schrödinger equation. Both approaches will be discussed and illustrated.
A promising variational approach for determining the ground state energy and its properties is by using the second-order reduced density matrix (2-RDM). However, the leading obstacle with this approach is the N-representability problem. By employing a subset of conditions (typically the P, Q, G, T1 and T2′ conditions) results comparable to those of CCSD(T) can be achieved. However, these conditions do not guarantee size-consistency. In this work, we show that size-consistency can be satisfied if the 2-RDM satisfies the following conditions: (i) the 2-RDM is unitary invariant diagonal N-representable; (ii) the 2-RDM corresponding to each (unspecified) subsystem is the eigenstate of the number of corresponding electrons; and (iii) the 2-RDM satisfies at least one of the P, Q, G, T1 and T2′ conditions. This is the first time that a computationally feasible (though demanding) sufficient condition for the RDM method that guarantees size-consistency in all chemical systems has been published in the literature.
The methods used to determine the reduced density matrix (RDM) of the ground and excited states, the finite-temperature systems, and the large systems without using the wave function by solving the density equation were discussed. We examined the foundations to reconstruct the higher-order RDMs of the ground and excited states and the finite-temperature systems in terms of the lower-order RDMs. We presented the equation to determine the RDMs of the finite-temperature systems directly and showed that only the exact RDMs satisfy the equation. Our previous approximation for third- and fourth-order RDMs of the ground state [H. Nakatsuji and K. Yasuda, Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 1039 (1996)] was reformulated, and the accuracy of this approximation for the excited states was examined. The structure of the nth order energy density matrix (n-EDM) was analyzed, and the calculation method which sums up the Parquet diagram of the 2-EDM without explicitly constructing the third- and fourth-order RDMs was reported. This approximation is more accurate than the previous second-order approximation and also includes the infinite series of bubble and ladder Green's function diagrams. Such a method is necessary to apply the density-equation method to large systems, such as polymers, metals, and semiconductors. The new approximation together with the density equation was applied to the ground states of some molecules including CO, C2H2,C3H8, and C4H10, and the excited states of the Be atom and Li2 molecule. The calculated energies were as accurate as the exact or coupled-cluster single and double excitations with triples included noniteratively, and the energy errors of the second-order approximation were significantly reduced. The calculated 2-RDMs almost satisfied important representability conditions while the 1-RDMs were exactly ensemble representable. These results demonstrate that the density equation offers a new quantitative method for treating electron correlations. The relationship between the iterative procedure and the finite-temperature density-equation method was discussed.
The reduced density matrix (RDM) method, which is a variational calculation based on the second-order reduced density matrix, is applied to the ground state energies and the dipole moments for 57 different states of atoms, molecules, and to the ground state energies and the elements of 2-RDM for the Hubbard model. We explore the well-known N-representability conditions (P, Q, and G) together with the more recent and much stronger T1 and T2(') conditions. T2(') condition was recently rederived and it implies T2 condition. Using these N-representability conditions, we can usually calculate correlation energies in percentage ranging from 100% to 101%, whose accuracy is similar to CCSD(T) and even better for high spin states or anion systems where CCSD(T) fails. Highly accurate calculations are carried out by handling equality constraints and/or developing multiple precision arithmetic in the semidefinite programming (SDP) solver. Results show that handling equality constraints correctly improves the accuracy from 0.1 to 0.6 mhartree. Additionally, improvements by replacing T2 condition with T2(') condition are typically of 0.1-0.5 mhartree. The newly developed multiple precision arithmetic version of SDP solver calculates extraordinary accurate energies for the one dimensional Hubbard model and Be atom. It gives at least 16 significant digits for energies, where double precision calculations gives only two to eight digits. It also provides physically meaningful results for the Hubbard model in the high correlation limit.