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arXiv:2503.10808 · The Journal of Physical Chemistry A

Wavefunction Optimization at the Complete Basis Set Limit with Multiwavelets and DMRG

Martina Nibbi, Luca Frediani, Evgueni Dinvay, Christian B. Mendl

Published Nov 13, 2025• 1 citation
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide The density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) is a powerful numerical technique to solve strongly correlated quantum systems: it deals well with systems which are not dominated by a single configuration (unlike Coupled Cluster) and it converges rapidly to the Full Configuration Interaction (FCI) limit (unlike truncated Configuration Interaction (CI) expansions). In this work, we develop an algorithm integrating DMRG within the multiwavelet-based multiresolution analysis (MRA). Unlike fixed basis sets, multiwavelets offer an adaptive and hierarchical representation of functions, approaching the complete basis set limit to a specified precision. As a result, this combined technique leverages the multireference capability of DMRG and the complete basis set limit of MRA and multiwavelets. More specifically, we adopt a pre-existing Lagrangian optimization algorithm for orbitals represented in the MRA domain and improve its computational efficiency by replacing the original CI calculations with DMRG. Additionally, we substitute the reduced density matrices computation with the direct extraction of energy gradients from the DMRG tensors. We apply our method to small systems such H 2, He, HeH 2, BeH 2 and N 2 . The results demonstrate that our approach reduces the final energy while keeping the number of orbitals low compared to FCI calculations on an atomic orbital basis set.

DOI
10.1021/acs.jpca.5c05836

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High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide The density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) is a powerful numerical technique to solve strongly correlated quantum systems: it deals well with systems which are not dominated by a single configuration (unlike Coupled Cluster) and it converges rapidly to the Full Configuration Interaction (FCI) limit (unlike truncated Configuration Interaction (CI) expansions). In this work, we develop an algorithm integrating DMRG within the multiwavelet-based multiresolution analysis (MRA). Unlike fixed basis sets, multiwavelets offer an adaptive and hierarchical representation of functions, approaching the complete basis set limit to a specified precision. As a result, this combined technique leverages the multireference capability of DMRG and the complete basis set limit of MRA and multiwavelets. More specifically, we adopt a pre-existing Lagrangian optimization algorithm for orbitals represented in the MRA domain and improve its computational efficiency by replacing the original CI calculations with DMRG. Additionally, we substitute the reduced density matrices computation with the direct extraction of energy gradients from the DMRG tensors. We apply our method to small systems such H 2, He, HeH 2, BeH 2 and N 2 . The results demonstrate that our approach reduces the final energy while keeping the number of orbitals low compared to FCI calculations on an atomic orbital basis set.
This article presents an efficient and parallelized implementation of the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) algorithm for quantum chemistry calculations. The DMRG method as a large-scale multireference electronic structure model is by nature particularly efficient for one-dimensionally correlated systems, while the present development is oriented toward applications for polynuclear transition metal compounds, in which the macroscopic one-dimensional structure of electron correlation is absent. A straightforward extension of the DMRG algorithm is proposed with further improvements and aggressive optimizations to allow its application with large multireference active space, which is often demanded for metal compound calculations. Special efficiency is achieved by making better use of sparsity and symmetry in the operator and wave function representations. By accomplishing computationally intensive DMRG calculations, the authors have found that a large number of renormalized basis states are required to represent high entanglement of the electron correlation for metal compound applications, and it is crucial to adopt auxiliary perturbative correction to the projected density matrix during the DMRG sweep optimization in order to attain proper convergence to the solution. Potential energy curve calculations for the Cr(2) molecule near the known equilibrium precisely predicted the full configuration interaction energies with a correlation space of 24 electrons in 30 orbitals [denoted by (24e,30o)]. The energies are demonstrated to be accurate to 0.6mE(h) (the error from the extrapolated best value) when as many as 10,000 renormalized basis states are employed for the left and right DMRG block representations. The relative energy curves for [Cu(2)O(2)](2+) along the isomerization coordinate were obtained from DMRG and other correlated calculations, for which a fairly large orbital space (32e,62o) is modeled as a full correlation space. The DMRG prediction nearly overlaps with the energy curve from the coupled cluster with singles, doubles, and perturbative triple [CCSD(T)] calculations, while the multireference complete active space self-consistent field (CASSCF) calculations with the small reference configuration (8e,8o) are found to overestimate the biradical character of the electronic state of [Cu(2)O(2)](2+) according to the one-electron density matrix analysis.
An implementation of the single-site density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) approach for the quantum-chemical application to calculate approximate as well as exact electronic ground-state energies and wave functions of atoms and molecules is presented.The algorithm is formulated in terms of the variational and sizeconsistent class of wave functions, matrix product states, and their operator analogues, matrix product operators.A procedure to construct quantum-chemical Hamiltonian operators with long-range Coulomb interactions as matrix product operators is developed.The many-electron Hamiltonian operators are represented as sums and products of one-electron operators.For the efficient matrix product operator construction of quantum-chemical Hamiltonians, different basis spaces including discrete position and momentum space as well as molecular and atomic orbitals are investigated.Discrete position space yields the best matrix product operator size scaling, but introduces artificial long-range couplings in the kinetic energy term of the Hamiltonian which are a consequence of the DMRG algorithm in terms of matrix product states.The huge amount of discrete space points needed for an accurate description poses a problem because of the electron-electron interaction.Therefore, a momentum space or Fourier series expansion of the electron-electron interaction is shown which makes it possible to compress its matrix product operator representation.DMRG applied to quantum-chemical Hamiltonians in matrix product operator form can serve as means to directly (without mean-field treatment in advance) investigate quantum-chemical problems and find the analytically exact ground-state solution of small atoms and molecules.The next basis space analyzed in detail is the atomic orbital basis.The matrix product operator construction and the direct application of the DMRG method in this basis is examined.A physical compression scheme based on a singular value decomposition of the electron-electron interaction in the atomic orbital basis is demonstrated.Furthermore, DMRG calculations in the atomic orbital basis for certain systems where mean-field theory yields qualitatively wrong results and where higher-order approximative correction methods like truncated configuration interaction and coupled cluster cannot fully capture strong electron correlation effects are compared to results obtained in the molecular orbital basis.The comparison shows that atomic orbitals describe the physical situation well and thus lead to a tremendous reduction of the matrix product state dimension and the computational effort.i
Thanks to the high compression of the matrix product state (MPS) form of the wave function and the efficient site-by-site iterative sweeping optimization algorithm, the density matrix normalization group (DMRG) and its time-dependent variant (TD-DMRG) have been established as powerful computational tools in accurately simulating the electronic structure and quantum dynamics of strongly correlated molecules with a large number (10 1–2 ) of quantum degrees of freedom (active orbitals or vibrational modes). However, the quantitative characterization of the quantum many-body behaviors of realistic strongly correlated systems requires a further consideration of the interaction between the embedded active subsystem and the remaining correlated environment, e.g., a larger number (10 2–3 ) of external orbitals in electronic structure or infinite condensed-phase phononic modes in nucleus dynamics. To this end, we introduced three new post-DMRG and TD-DMRG approaches, namely (1) DMRG2sCI-MRCI and DMRG2sCI-ENPT by the reconstruction of selected configuration interaction (sCI) type of compact reference function from DMRG coefficients and the use of externally contracted MRCI (multireference configuration interaction) and Epstein–Nesbet perturbation theory (ENPT), without recourse to the expensive high order n -electron reduced density matrices ( n -RDMs). (2) DMRG combined with RR-MRCI (renormalized residue-based MRCI), which improves the computational accuracy and efficiency of internally contracted (ic) MRCI by renormalizing the contracted bases with small-sized buffer environment(s) of a few external orbitals as probes based on quantum information theory. (3) HM (hierarchical mapping)-TD-DMRG in which a large environment is reduced to a small number of renormalized environmental modes (which accounts for the most vital system–environment interactions) through stepwise mapping transformation. These advances extend the efficacy of highly accurate DMRG/TD-DMRG computations to the quantitative characterization of the electronic structure and quantum dynamics in realistic strongly correlated systems coupled with large environments and are reviewed in this paper.
We present an extended implementation of the multireference configuration interaction (MRCI) method combined with the quantum-chemical density matrix renormalization group (DMRG). In the previous study, we introduced the combined theory, referred to as DMRGMRCI, as a method to calculate high-level dynamic electron correlation on top of the DMRG wave function that accounts for active-space (or strong) correlation using a large number of active orbitals. The DMRG-MRCI method is built on the full internal-contraction scheme for the compact reference treatment and on the cumulant approximation for the treatment of the four-particle rank reduced density matrix (4-RDM). The previous implementation achieved the MRCI calculations with the active space (24e,24o), which are deemed the record largest, whereas the inherent Nact 8 × N complexity of computation was found a hindrance to using further large active space. In this study, an extended optimization of the tensor contractions is developed by explicitly incorporating the rank reduction of the decomposed form of the cumulant-approximated 4-RDM into the factorization. It reduces the computational scaling (to Nact7 × N) as well as the cache-miss penalty associated with direct evaluation of complex cumulant reconstruction. The present scheme, however, faces the increased complexity of factorization patterns for optimally implementing the tensor contraction terms involving the decomposed 4-RDM objects. We address this complexity using the enhanced symbolic manipulation computer program for deriving and coding programmable equations. The new DMRG-MRCI implementation is applied to the determination of the stability of the iron(IV)-oxo porphyrin relative to the iron(V) electronic isomer (electromer) using the active space (29e,29o) (including four second d-shell orbitals of iron) with triple-ζ-quality atomic orbital basis sets. The DMRG-cu(4)-MRCI+Q model is shown to favor the triradicaloid iron(IV)-oxo state as the lowest energy state and characterize the iron(V) electromer as thermally inaccessible, supporting the earlier experimental and density functional studies. This conflicts with the previous MR calculations using the restricted activespace second-order perturbation theory (RASPT2) with the similar-size active space (29e,28o) reported by Pierloot et al. (Radoń, M.; Broclawik, E.; Pierloot, K. J. Chem. Theory Comput. 2011, 7, 898), showing that the hypothetical iron(V) state indicated by recent laser flash photolysis (LFP) studies is likely thermally accessible because of its underestimated relative energy.
We present the density matrix renormalization group self-consistent field (DMRG-SCF) approach that is analogous to the complete active space self-consisted field (CASSCF) method but instead of using for the description of the active space the full configuration interaction (FCI) method, the DMRG-SCF uses the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) method. The DMRG-SCF approach, similarly to CASSCF, properly describes the multiconfigurational character of the wave function but avoids the exponential scaling of the FCI method and replaces it with a polynomial scaling. Hence, calculations for a larger number of orbitals and electrons in the active space are possible since the DMRG method provides an efficient tool to automatically select from the full Hilbert space the many-body contracted basis states that are the most important for the description of the wave function.
The recent development of the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) method in multireference quantum chemistry makes it practical to evaluate static correlation in a large active space, while dynamic correlation provides a critical correction to the DMRG reference for strong-correlated systems and is usually obtained using multireference perturbation (MRPT) or configuration interaction (MRCI) methods with internal contraction (ic) approximation. These methods can use an active space scalable to relatively larger size references than has previously been possible. However, they are still hardly applicable to systems with an active space larger than 30 orbitals and/or a large basis set because of high computation and storage costs of high-order reduced density matrices (RDMs) and the crucial dependence of the MRCI Hamiltonian dimension on the number of virtual orbitals. In this work, we propose a new effective implementation of DMRG-MRCI, in which we use reconstructed CASCI-type configurations from DMRG wave function via the entropy-driving genetic algorithm (EDGA) [Luo et al. J. Chem. Theory Comput. 2017, 13, 4699−4710.] and integrate it with MRCI by an external contraction (ec) scheme. This bypasses the bottleneck of computing high-order RDMs in traditional DMRG dynamic correlation methods with ic approximation, and the number of MRCI configurations is not dependent on the number of virtual orbitals. Therefore, the DMRG-ec-MRCI method is promising for dealing with a larger active space than 30 orbitals and large basis sets. We demonstrate the capability of our DMRG-ec-MRCI method in several benchmark applications, including the evaluation of the potential energy curve of Cr 2, single-triplet gaps of higher n-acene molecules, and the energy of the Eu-BTBP(NO 3 ) 3 complex.