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arXiv:2608.17885

Benchmarking Least-Squares Tensor Hypercontraction Techniques for Molecular Systems

Niklas Paulicks, Johannes Tölle

Published Aug 18, 2026• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Finding a low-rank approximation for the two-electron integral (ERI) tensor is a crucial step towards reducing the computational cost of many-body electronic structure methods. In recent years, a range of new tensor factorization techniques, like the so-called tensor-hypercontraction (THC) approach, have been developed to achieve this goal. Unfortunately, a systematic comparison of accuracy and efficiency of different THC construction algorithms is missing. In this work, we address this gap by benchmarking these techniques across a wide range of molecular systems. In addition to offering useful insights into the advantages and disadvantages of the different techniques, we provide reference implementations in the newly developed open-source library, PyTHC.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2608.17885

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Finding a low-rank approximation for the two-electron integral (ERI) tensor is a crucial step towards reducing the computational cost of many-body electronic structure methods. In recent years, a range of new tensor factorization techniques, like the so-called tensor-hypercontraction (THC) approach, have been developed to achieve this goal. Unfortunately, a systematic comparison of accuracy and efficiency of different THC construction algorithms is missing. In this work, we address this gap by benchmarking these techniques across a wide range of molecular systems. In addition to offering useful insights into the advantages and disadvantages of the different techniques, we provide reference implementations in the newly developed open-source library, PyTHC.
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Least-squares tensor hypercontraction (LS-THC) has received some attention in recent years as an approach to reduce the significant computational costs of wave function-based methods in quantum chemistry. However, previous work has demonstrated that LS-THC factorization performs disproportionately worse in the description of wave function components (e.g., cluster amplitudes T̂ 2 ) than Hamiltonian components (e.g., electron repulsion integrals ( pq | rs )). This work develops novel theoretical methods to study the source of these errors in the context of the real-space T̂ 2 kernel, and reports, for the first time, the existence of a “correlation feature” in the errors of the LS-THC representation of the “exchange-like” correlation energy E X and T̂ 2 that is remarkably consistent across ten molecular species, three correlated wave functions, and four basis sets. This correlation feature portends the existence of a “pair point kernel” missing in the usual LS-THC representation of the wave function, which critically depends upon pairs of grid points situated close to atoms and with interpair distances between one and two Bohr radii. These findings point the way for future LS-THC developments to address these shortcomings.
The manipulation of the rank-four tensor of double excitation amplitudes represents a challenge to the efficient implementation of many electronic structure methods. We present a proof of concept for the approximation of doubles amplitudes in the tensor hypercontraction (THC) representation. In particular, we show how THC can be used to both reduce the scaling with respect to molecular size of coupled cluster singles and doubles (CCSD) (and related methods) by two orders [from O(N(6)) to O(N(4))] and remove the memory bottleneck associated with storage of the doubles amplitudes. The accuracy of correlated methods as integral and amplitude approximations are introduced is examined. For a set of 20 small molecules, single and double-excitation configuration interaction (CISD), quadratic CISD (QCISD), and CCSD correlation energies could be reproduced with millihartree accuracy after the introduction of these approximations. Our approach exploits otherwise hidden factorizable tensor structure in both the electron repulsion integrals and the wavefunction coefficients and should be applicable with suitable modifications to many methods in electronic structure theory.
One method of representing a high-rank tensor as a (hyper-)product of lower-rank tensors is the tensor hypercontraction (THC) method of Hohenstein et al. This strategy has been found to be useful for reducing the polynomial scaling of coupled-cluster methods by representation of a four-dimensional tensor of electron-repulsion integrals in terms of five two-dimensional matrices. Pierce et al. have already shown that the application of a robust form of THC to the particle–particle ladder (PPL) term reduces the cost of this term in couple-cluster singles and doubles (CCSD) from O ( N 6 ) to O ( N 5 ) with negligible errors in energy with respect to the density-fitted variant. In this work, we have implemented the least-squares variant of THC (LS-THC) which does not require a nonlinear tensor factorization, including the robust form (R-LS-THC), for the calculation of the excitation and electron attachment energies using equation-of-motion coupled cluster methods EOMEE-CCSD and EOMEA-CCSD, respectively. We have benchmarked the effect of the R-LS-THC-PPL approximation on excitation energies using the comprehensive QUEST database and the accuracy of electron attachment energies using the NAB22 database. We find that errors on the order of 1 meV are achievable with a reduction in total calculation time of approximately 5 ×.
In recent years, interest in the random-phase approximation (RPA) has grown rapidly. At the same time, tensor hypercontraction has emerged as an intriguing method to reduce the computational cost of electronic structure algorithms. In this paper, we combine the particle-particle random phase approximation with tensor hypercontraction to produce the tensor-hypercontracted particle-particle RPA (THC-ppRPA) algorithm. Unlike previous implementations of ppRPA which scale as O(r(6)), the THC-ppRPA algorithm scales asymptotically as only O(r(4)), albeit with a much larger prefactor than the traditional algorithm. We apply THC-ppRPA to several model systems and show that it yields the same results as traditional ppRPA to within mH accuracy. Our method opens the door to the development of post-Kohn Sham functionals based on ppRPA without the excessive asymptotic cost of traditional ppRPA implementations.
Wavefunction-based quantum methods are some of the most accurate tools for predicting and analyzing the electronic structure of molecules, in particular for accounting for dynamical electron correlation. However, most methods of including dynamical correlation beyond the simple second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2) level are too computationally expensive to apply to large molecules. Approximations which reduce scaling with system size are a potential remedy, such as the tensor hyper-contraction (THC) technique of Hohenstein et al., but also result in additional sources of error. In this work, we correct errors in THC-approximated methods using machine learning. Specifically, we apply THC to third-order Møller-Plesset theory (MP3) as a simplified model for coupled cluster with single and double excitations (CCSD), and train several regression models on observed THC errors from the Main Group Chemistry Database (MGCDB84). We compare performance of multiple linear regression models and nonlinear Kernel Ridge regression models. We also investigate correlation procedures using absolute and relative corrections and evaluate the corrections for both molecule and reaction energies. We discuss the potential for using regression techniques to correct THC-MP3 errors by comparing it to the "canonical" MP3 reference values and find the optimum technique based on accuracy. We find that nonlinear regression models reduced root mean squared errors between THC- and canonical MP3 by a factor of 6-9× for total molecular energies and 2-3× for reaction energies.