We formulate an adiabatic connection for the exchange-correlation energy in terms of pairing matrix fluctuation. This connection opens new channels for density functional approximations based on pairing interactions. Even the simplest approximation to the pairing matrix fluctuation, the particle-particle random phase approximation (pp-RPA), has some highly desirable properties. It has no delocalization error with a nearly linear energy behavior for systems with fractional charges, describes van der Waals interactions similarly and thermodynamic properties significantly better than particle-hole RPA, and eliminates static correlation error for single-bond systems. Most significantly, the pp-RPA is the first known functional that has an explicit and closed-form dependence on the occupied and unoccupied orbitals and captures the energy derivative discontinuity in strongly correlated systems. These findings illustrate the potential of including pairing interactions within a density functional framework.
We formulate an adiabatic connection for the exchange-correlation energy in terms of pairing matrix fluctuation. This connection opens new channels for density functional approximations based on pairing interactions. Even the simplest approximation to the pairing matrix fluctuation, the particle-particle random phase approximation (pp-RPA), has some highly desirable properties. It has no delocalization error with a nearly linear energy behavior for systems with fractional charges, describes van der Waals interactions similarly and thermodynamic properties significantly better than particle-hole RPA, and eliminates static correlation error for single-bond systems. Most significantly, the pp-RPA is the first known functional that has an explicit and closed-form dependence on the occupied and unoccupied orbitals and captures the energy derivative discontinuity in strongly correlated systems. These findings illustrate the potential of including pairing interactions within a density functional framework.
Recent development in particle-particle random phase approximation (pp-RPA) broadens the perspective on ground state correlation energies [H. van Aggelen, Y. Yang, and W. Yang, Phys. Rev. A 88, 030501 (2013), Y. Yang, H. van Aggelen, S. N. Steinmann, D. Peng, and W. Yang, J. Chem. Phys. 139, 174110 (2013); D. Peng, S. N. Steinmann, H. van Aggelen, and W. Yang, J. Chem. Phys. 139, 104112 (2013)] and N ± 2 excitation energies [Y. Yang, H. van Aggelen, and W. Yang, J. Chem. Phys. 139, 224105 (2013)]. So far Hartree-Fock and approximated density-functional orbitals have been utilized to evaluate the pp-RPA equation. In this paper, to further explore the fundamentals and the potential use of pairing matrix dependent functionals, we present the linear-response time-dependent density-functional theory with pairing fields with both adiabatic and frequency-dependent kernels. This theory is related to the density-functional theory and time-dependent density-functional theory for superconductors, but is applied to normal non-superconducting systems for our purpose. Due to the lack of the proof of the one-to-one mapping between the pairing matrix and the pairing field for time-dependent systems, the linear-response theory is established based on the representability assumption of the pairing matrix. The linear response theory justifies the use of approximated density-functionals in the pp-RPA equation. This work sets the fundamentals for future density-functional development to enhance the description of ground state correlation energies and N ± 2 excitation energies.
We have calculated the correlation energy of the homogeneous electron gas (HEG) and the dissociation energy curves of molecules with covalent bonds from an efficient implementation of the adiabatic connection fluctuation dissipation expression including the exact-exchange (EXX) kernel. The EXX kernel is defined from first-order perturbation theory and used in the Dyson equation of time-dependent density-functional theory. Within this approximation (RPAx), the correlation energies of the HEG are significantly improved with respect to the random phase approximation (RPA) up to densities of the order of ${r}_{s}\ensuremath{\approx}10$. However, beyond this value, the RPAx response function exhibits an unphysical divergence and the approximation breaks down. Total energies of molecules at equilibrium are also highly accurate, but we find a similar instability at stretched geometries. Staying within an exact first-order approximation to the response function, we use an alternative resummation of the higher-order terms. This slight redefinition of RPAx fixes the instability in total energy calculations without compromising the overall accuracy of the approach.
Using a second-order approximation to Random Phase Approximation renormalized (RPAr) many-body perturbation theory for the interacting density-density response function, we have developed a so-called higher-order terms (HOT) approximation for the correlation energy. In combination with the first-order RPAr correction, our new method faithfully captures the infinite-order correlation for a given exchange-correlation kernel, yielding errors of the total correlation energy on the order of 1% or less for most systems. For exchange-like kernels, our new method has the further benefit that the coupling-strength integration can be completely eliminated resulting in a modest reduction in computational cost compared to the traditional approach. When the correlation energy is accurately reproduced by the HOT approximation, structural properties and energy differences are also accurately reproduced, as we demonstrate for several periodic solids and some molecular systems. Energy differences involving fragmentation are challenging for the HOT method, however, due to errors that may not cancel between a composite system and its constituent pieces.
We derive analytical expressions for chemical potentials within the random phase approximation (RPA), equivalently the GW energy functional evaluated using non interacting Green's functions (Gs). The chemical potential is obtained using two formally equivalent approaches: a direct derivative of the total energy with respect to particle number, and a functional derivative via the chain rule through Gs, both validated with finite difference benchmarks. We show that the functional derivative of the GW correlation energy$\unicode{x2013}$i.e., the GW correlation self energy$\unicode{x2013}$exhibits a discontinuity at integer particle numbers with finite jumps. This resolves the apparent inconsistency between accurate GW quasiparticle energies and the large delocalization errors observed in RPA total energies, as standard GW self energies neglect this nonanalytic behavior. Our results suggest that derivative discontinuities are a fundamental feature of correlation energy functionals, analogous to the known discontinuity in the exact exchange correlation energy.
We propose a novel approach to electron correlation for multireference systems. It is based on particle-hole (ph) and particle-particle (pp) theories in the second-order, developed in the random phase approximation (RPA) framework for multireference wave functions. We show a formal correspondence (duality), between contributions to the correlation energy in the ph and pp pictures. It allows us to describe correlation energy by rigorously combining pp and ph terms, avoiding correlation double counting. The multireference ph, pp, and the combined correlation methods are applied to ground and excited states of systems in the intermediate and strong correlation regimes and compared with the multireference second-order perturbation method (MRPT2). It is shown that the pp approximation fails to describe dissociation of multiple bonds. The ph-pp combined method is overall superior to both ph and pp alone. It parallels good accuracy of the second-order perturbation theory for ground states and singlet excitation energies. For the singlet-triplet gaps of biradicals its accuracy is significantly better. This is impressive, taking into account that it relies only on one- and two-body density matrices, while MRPT2 methods typically require density matrices up to the four-body.