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arXiv:2106.11305 · The Journal of Chemical Physics

Variational coupled cluster for ground and excited states

Antoine Marie, Fábris Kossoski, Pierre‐François Loos

Published Sep 9, 2021• 53 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

In single-reference coupled-cluster (CC) methods, one has to solve a set of non-linear polynomial equations in order to determine the so-called amplitudes that are then used to compute the energy and other properties. Although it is of common practice to converge to the (lowest-energy) ground-state solution, it is also possible, thanks to tailored algorithms, to access higher-energy roots of these equations that may or may not correspond to genuine excited states. Here, we explore the structure of the energy landscape of variational CC and we compare it with its (projected) traditional version in the case where the excitation operator is restricted to paired double excitations (pCCD). By investigating two model systems (the symmetric stretching of the linear H4 molecule and the continuous deformation of the square H4 molecule into a rectangular arrangement) in the presence of weak and strong correlations, the performance of variational pCCD (VpCCD) and traditional pCCD is gauged against their configuration interaction (CI) equivalent, known as doubly occupied CI, for reference Slater determinants made of ground- or excited-state Hartree–Fock orbitals or state-specific orbitals optimized directly at the VpCCD level. The influence of spatial symmetry breaking is also investigated.

DOI
10.1063/5.0060698

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In single-reference coupled-cluster (CC) methods, one has to solve a set of non-linear polynomial equations in order to determine the so-called amplitudes that are then used to compute the energy and other properties. Although it is of common practice to converge to the (lowest-energy) ground-state solution, it is also possible, thanks to tailored algorithms, to access higher-energy roots of these equations that may or may not correspond to genuine excited states. Here, we explore the structure of the energy landscape of variational CC and we compare it with its (projected) traditional version in the case where the excitation operator is restricted to paired double excitations (pCCD). By investigating two model systems (the symmetric stretching of the linear H4 molecule and the continuous deformation of the square H4 molecule into a rectangular arrangement) in the presence of weak and strong correlations, the performance of variational pCCD (VpCCD) and traditional pCCD is gauged against their configuration interaction (CI) equivalent, known as doubly occupied CI, for reference Slater determinants made of ground- or excited-state Hartree–Fock orbitals or state-specific orbitals optimized directly at the VpCCD level. The influence of spatial symmetry breaking is also investigated.
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.
The accurate and efficient description of strongly correlated systems remains an important challenge for computational methods. Doubly occupied configuration interaction (DOCI), in which all electrons are paired and no correlations which break these pairs are permitted, can in many cases provide an accurate account of strong correlations, albeit at combinatorial computational cost. Recently, there has been significant interest in a method we refer to as pair coupled cluster doubles (pCCD), a variant of coupled cluster doubles in which the electrons are paired. This is simply because pCCD provides energies nearly identical to those of DOCI, but at mean-field computational cost (disregarding the cost of the two-electron integral transformation). Here, we introduce the more complete pair extended coupled cluster doubles (pECCD) approach which, like pCCD, has mean-field cost and reproduces DOCI energetically. We show that unlike pCCD, pECCD also reproduces the DOCI wave function with high accuracy. Moreover, pECCD yields sensible albeit inexact results even for attractive interactions where pCCD breaks down.
To gain more insight into the physical and mathematical content of the equations of the coupled–cluster (CC) method, comprehensive numerical studies have been performed for various geometries of the H4 model which belongs to the simplest and best understood among the realistic many–electron model systems. These studies are for the first time based on the knowledge of the complete sets of geometrically isolated solutions of the relevant equations that are obtained when using a special version of the homotopy methods. The equations of the CC method including two–electron excitations (CCD) both in the spin–orbital and spin–symmetry–adapted versions are considered. To establish the correspondence of the solutions attained with those of the configuration interaction (CID) method, we have for the first time solved the unabridged characteristic equations (CE) of T. P. Živković and H. J. Monkhorst [J. Math. Phys. 19, 1007 (1978)]. The complete sets of solutions to the spin–orbital and spin–symmetry–adapted versions of the CCD equations and CEs consist of 20 and 12 solutions, respectively. Their structures turned out to be unexpectedly simple, which makes it possible to understand the physical and mathematical significance of the individual solutions. Moreover, this simplicity rises hopes that the most serious irregularities previously found for low dimensional simulations of the CEs can be avoided for realistic systems. The present results confirm most of the findings of previous research. Attention is paid to studies of the impact of using mixed–symmetry cluster operators on the structure of solutions to the CC equations. The specific part played by the components of the cluster amplitudes corresponding to other spin–symmetry than that of the reference function has been demonstrated for the first time.
The Coupled-Cluster (CC) method is one of the most popular and efficient correlation methods in quantum chemistry. \nEspecially the CCSD(T) approximation, which includes single and double excitations by means of the application of the cluster operator \nto a reference determinant and triple excitations via a perturbative treatment, has become a standard tool \nin quantum chemical applications. However, the method is restricted to relatively small system sizes due to its unfavourable scaling (N^7, where N is the number of basis functions applied). \nFor the full treatment of triple excitations the scaling advances to N^8 and every further excitation level increases the exponent by two. \n \nThe goal of this work is to reduce the calculation time for closed shell systems at least by a factor growing with the excitation level for arbitrary truncation levels. \nThis is done by restricting the spatial parts of the spin orbitals and thus treat pairs of spin orbitals on the same footing. The restrictions can be easily constructed \nfor the CCSD model by spin integration. \nThe derivation of the restrictions arising in higher excited case will be done employing \nthe spatial orbital excitation operators E. \n \nIn the first part of this work an algorithm is derived that is capable of the derivation of the energy and amplitude equations for arbitrary excitation levels. In the second part \nan implementation of this algorithm is presented.
Abstract Downfolding coupled cluster (CC) techniques are powerful tools for reducing the dimensionality of many-body quantum problems. This work investigates how ground-state downfolding formalisms can target excited states using non-Aufbau reference determinants, paving the way for applications of quantum computing in excited-state chemistry. This study focuses on doubly excited states for which canonical equation-of-motion CC approaches struggle to describe unless one includes higher-than-double excitations. The downfolding technique results in state-specific effective Hamiltonians that, when diagonalized in their respective active spaces, provide ground- and excited-state total energies (and therefore excitation energies) comparable to high-level CC methods. The performance of this procedure is examined with doubly excited states of H2, Methylene, Formaldehyde, and Nitroxyl.
Doubly occupied configuration interaction (DOCI) with optimized orbitals often accurately describes strong correlations while working in a Hilbert space much smaller than that needed for full configuration interaction. However, the scaling of such calculations remains combinatorial with system size. Pair coupled cluster doubles (pCCD) is very successful in reproducing DOCI energetically, but can do so with low polynomial scaling (N(3), disregarding the two-electron integral transformation from atomic to molecular orbitals). We show here several examples illustrating the success of pCCD in reproducing both the DOCI energy and wave function and show how this success frequently comes about. What DOCI and pCCD lack are an effective treatment of dynamic correlations, which we here add by including higher-seniority cluster amplitudes which are excluded from pCCD. This frozen pair coupled cluster approach is comparable in cost to traditional closed-shell coupled cluster methods with results that are competitive for weakly correlated systems and often superior for the description of strongly correlated systems.