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arXiv:2107.01099 · The Journal of Chemical Physics

Unitary coupled-cluster based self-consistent polarization propagator theory: A quadratic unitary coupled-cluster singles and doubles scheme

Junzi Liu, Lan Cheng

Published Nov 1, 2021• 17 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The development of a quadratic unitary coupled-cluster singles and doubles (qUCCSD) based self-consistent polarization propagator method is reported. We present a simple strategy for truncating the commutator expansion of the unitary version of coupled-cluster transformed Hamiltonian H̄. The qUCCSD method for the electronic ground state includes up to double commutators for the amplitude equations and up to cubic commutators for the energy expression. The qUCCSD excited-state eigenvalue equations include up to double commutators for the singles-singles block of H̄, single commutators for the singles-doubles and doubles-singles blocks, and the bare Hamiltonian for the doubles-doubles block. Benchmark qUCCSD calculations of the ground-state properties and excitation energies for representative molecules demonstrate significant improvement of the accuracy and robustness over the previous UCC3 scheme derived using Møller-Plesset perturbation theory.

DOI
10.1063/5.0062090

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The development of a quadratic unitary coupled-cluster singles and doubles (qUCCSD) based self-consistent polarization propagator method is reported. We present a simple strategy for truncating the commutator expansion of the unitary version of coupled-cluster transformed Hamiltonian H̄. The qUCCSD method for the electronic ground state includes up to double commutators for the amplitude equations and up to cubic commutators for the energy expression. The qUCCSD excited-state eigenvalue equations include up to double commutators for the singles-singles block of H̄, single commutators for the singles-doubles and doubles-singles blocks, and the bare Hamiltonian for the doubles-doubles block. Benchmark qUCCSD calculations of the ground-state properties and excitation energies for representative molecules demonstrate significant improvement of the accuracy and robustness over the previous UCC3 scheme derived using Møller-Plesset perturbation theory.
An efficient implementation of the quadratic unitary coupled-cluster singles and doubles (qUCCSD) scheme for calculations of electronic ground and excited states using an unrestricted molecular spin–orbital formulation and an efficient tensor contraction library is reported. The accuracy of the qUCCSD scheme and the efficiency of the present implementation are demonstrated using extensive benchmark calculations of excitation energies and an application to S 0 → S 1 vertical excitation energies for cis - and trans -4 a,4 b- dihydrotriphenylene. The qUCCSD scheme has been shown to provide improved excitation energies compared with the UCC3 scheme formulated based on perturbation theory. A UCC truncation scheme that can provide excitation energies correct through the fourth order is also presented to further improve the accuracy of the qUCCSD scheme.
We present a non-iterative triples correction to the relativistic quadratic unitary coupled cluster singles and doubles (qUCCSD) method, denoted as qUCCSD[T]. The method builds upon the Hermitian structure of the similarity-transformed Hamiltonian in the unitary coupled cluster method and can be derived by using perturbational truncation to the unitary coupled cluster energy functional. Relativistic effects are incorporated using the exact two-component atomic mean-field Hamiltonian, and the computational cost is further reduced through the frozen natural spinor and the Cholesky decomposition approximations. Benchmark results demonstrate that qUCCSD[T] outperforms previously proposed triples corrections to the unitary coupled cluster method and yields excellent agreement with experimental data and Full CI results. In addition, the method shows high accuracy in computing the bond dissociation enthalpies, molecular geometries, vibrational frequencies, ionization potentials, and electron affinities of heavy-element-containing systems. The new qUCCSD[T] method is competitive to popular CCSD(T) even on a classical computer.
In this study, we propose the quantum algorithm based on the unitary coupled cluster linear response theory for excited-state calculations with single and double excitations, denoted as qUCCSD-LR. Instead of the standard eigenvalue-problem-based scheme, the algorithm utilizes the dynamical-polarizability-based scheme, where the pole relative to the frequency of an external electric field corresponds to an excited state. Numerical applications of the qUCCSD-LR method to H2 could reproduce the dynamical polarizabilities, excitation energies and oscillator strengths obtained by the standard CCSD-LR method. Furthermore, potential energy curves for the double bond rotation in the ground and excited states of C2H4 were accurately calculated by the proposed method.
Unitary coupled cluster (UCC) theory offers a promising Hermitian alternative to conventional coupled cluster (CC) theory, but its practical implementation is hindered by the non-truncating nature of the Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff (BCH) expansion of the similarity-transformed Hamiltonian (Hˉ\bar{H}Hˉ). To address this challenge, various truncation strategies have been developed to approximate Hˉ\bar{H}Hˉ in a compact and reliable manner. In this work, we compare the numerical performance of approximate UCC with single and double excitations (UCCSD) methods that employ many-body perturbation theory (MBPT) and commutator rank based truncation schemes. Our results indicate low-order MBPT-based schemes, such as UCC(2) and UCC(3), yield reasonable results near equilibrium, but they become unreliable at stretched geometries. Higher-order MBPT-based schemes do not necessarily improve performance, as the UCCSD(4) and UCCSD(5) amplitude equations sometimes lack solutions. In contrast, commutator-rank-based truncations exhibit greater numerical stability, with the Bernoulli representation of the BCH expansion enabling more rapid convergence to the UCCSD limit compared to the standard BCH formulation.
We introduce a unitary coupled-cluster (UCC) ansatz termed k -UpCCGSD that is based on a family of sparse generalized doubles operators, which provides an affordable and systematically improvable unitary coupled-cluster wave function suitable for implementation on a near-term quantum computer. k -UpCCGSD employs k products of the exponential of pair coupled-cluster double excitation operators (pCCD), together with generalized single excitation operators. We compare its performance in both efficiency of implementation and accuracy with that of the generalized UCC ansatz employing the full generalized single and double excitation operators (UCCGSD), as well as with the standard ansatz employing only single and double excitations (UCCSD). k -UpCCGSD is found to show the best scaling for quantum computing applications, requiring a circuit depth of, compared with for UCCGSD, and for UCCSD, where N is the number of spin orbitals and η is the number of electrons. We analyzed the accuracy of these three ansätze by making classical benchmark calculations on the ground state and the first excited state of H 4 (STO-3G, 6-31G), H 2 O (STO-3G), and N 2 (STO-3G), making additional comparisons to conventional coupled cluster methods. The results for ground states show that k -UpCCGSD offers a good trade-off between accuracy and cost, achieving chemical accuracy for lower cost of implementation on quantum computers than both UCCGSD and UCCSD. UCCGSD is also found to be more accurate than UCCSD but at a greater cost for implementation. Excited states are calculated with an orthogonally constrained variational quantum eigensolver approach. This is seen to generally yield less accurate energies than for the corresponding ground states. We demonstrate that using a specialized multideterminantal reference state constructed from classical linear response calculations allows these excited state energetics to be improved.
Unitary coupled-cluster (UCC) theory offers a promising Hermitian alternative to conventional coupled-cluster (CC) theory, but its practical implementation is hindered by the non-truncating nature of the Baker–Campbell–Hausdorff (BCH) expansion of the similarity-transformed Hamiltonian (H¯). To address this challenge, various truncation strategies have been developed to approximate H¯ in a compact and reliable manner. In this work, we compare the numerical performance of approximate UCC with single and double excitations (UCCSD) methods that employ many-body perturbation theory (MBPT) and commutator-rank-based truncation schemes. Our results indicate low-order MBPT-based schemes, such as UCC(2) and UCC(3), yield reasonable results near equilibrium, but they become unreliable at stretched geometries. Higher-order MBPT-based schemes do not necessarily improve performance, as the UCCSD(4) and UCCSD(5) amplitude equations sometimes lack solutions. In contrast, commutator-rank-based truncations exhibit greater numerical stability, with the Bernoulli representation of the BCH expansion enabling more rapid convergence to the UCCSD limit compared to the standard BCH formulation.