The study of systems with fractional charges and spins has become an extremely important tool to understand errors in approximate electronic structure methods, particularly in the context of density functional theory. Meanwhile, similar studies with wavefunction (WF)-based methods beyond second-order perturbation theory have been lacking. In this contribution, we study the performance of different coupled cluster (CC) and many-body perturbation theory (MBPT)-based methods for fractional charges. The use of the conventional and renormalized formulations of fractional-charge MBPT is discussed. The fractional spin behavior of the coupled cluster doubles (CCD) method is also investigated. Overall, all tested WF methods show very promising performance for the fractional charge problem. CCD is also quite accurate for the fractional spin problem in He+ across most of the range, although it breaks down to near Hartree-Fock quality in the strongly correlated limit. Beyond the study of fractional charge and spin curves, the implementation of CC methods with fractional occupation numbers offers a promising route to treating problems with multi-reference character in a single-reference framework.
The study of systems with fractional charges and spins has become an extremely important tool to understand errors in approximate electronic structure methods, particularly in the context of density functional theory. Meanwhile, similar studies with wavefunction (WF)-based methods beyond second-order perturbation theory have been lacking. In this contribution, we study the performance of different coupled cluster (CC) and many-body perturbation theory (MBPT)-based methods for fractional charges. The use of the conventional and renormalized formulations of fractional-charge MBPT is discussed. The fractional spin behavior of the coupled cluster doubles (CCD) method is also investigated. Overall, all tested WF methods show very promising performance for the fractional charge problem. CCD is also quite accurate for the fractional spin problem in He+ across most of the range, although it breaks down to near Hartree-Fock quality in the strongly correlated limit. Beyond the study of fractional charge and spin curves, the implementation of CC methods with fractional occupation numbers offers a promising route to treating problems with multi-reference character in a single-reference framework.
Many-body perturbation theories (MBPT) (both single and multireference), by design, are capable of representing electron correlation very well. However, the practical implementation of these methods for many-electron systems beyond a certain order is extremely difficult, if not impossible. For instance, there are hardly any calculations beyond third order at the multireference and fifth order at the single reference of perturbation theories. Thus, these methods are typically limited to systems where the higher-order electron correlation effect is not significant. A practical solution to this problem is the coupled cluster theory, which was first introduced by Coester [20] and Coester and Kümmel [21] in nuclear physics and was later adopted in the electron structure theory by Čížek [23, 106] and Paldus and Čížek [107]. The coupled-cluster (CC) theory is a non-perturbative all-order theory. This stateof-the-art theory has now been recognized as the basis of modern quantitative quantum chemistry and atomic physics for high-precision calculations. Its superior accuracy is rooted in the exponential ansatz for the wave function, which provides an energy expression that scales correctly with the number of electrons and under certain provisions leads to a faster convergence of the many-body expansion.
Coupled-cluster (CC) theory and Green’s function many-body perturbation theory (MBPT) have long evolved as distinct yet complementary frameworks for describing electronic correlation. While CC methods employ exponential wave function parametrizations that guarantee size extensivity and systematic improvability, Green’s function approaches, such as the GW approximation, describe quasiparticle and optical excitations through diagrammatic resummations. Recent analyses have established a formal correspondence between these frameworks: the GW approximation is equivalent to an equation-of-motion (EOM) treatment of the direct-ring coupled-cluster doubles (drCCD) method. Within this context, the extended CC (ECC) ansatz offers a unified framework connecting CC and MBPT. This formulation bridges CC-based and Green’s function-based methods, providing novel avenues for incorporating vertex corrections within a CC framework that preserves a sum-over-state representation of the self-energy and leads to potentially systematically improvable Green’s function approaches.
Connection between GW and Extended Coupled Cluster
Coupled-cluster (CC) theory and Green's function many-body perturbation theory (MBPT) have long evolved as distinct yet complementary frameworks for describing electronic correlation. While CC methods employ exponential wavefunction parametrizations that guarantee size extensivity and systematic improvability, Green's function approaches such as the GW approximation describe quasiparticle and optical excitations through diagrammatic resummations. Recent analyses have established a formal correspondence between these frameworks: the GW approximation is equivalent to an equation-of-motion (EOM) treatment of the direct-ring coupled-cluster doubles (drCCD) method. Within this context, the extended CC (ECC) ansatz offers a unified framework connecting CC and MBPT. This formulation bridges CC-based and Green's function-based methods, providing novel avenues for incorporating vertex corrections within a CC framework that preserves a sum-over-state representation of the self-energy and lead to potentially systematically improvable Green's function approaches.
The exact conditions for density functionals and density matrix functionals in terms of fractional charges and fractional spins are known, and their violation in commonly used functionals has been shown to be the root of many major failures in practical applications. However, approximate functionals are designed for physical systems with integer charges and spins, not in terms of the fractional variables. Here we develop a general framework for extending approximate density functionals and many-electron theory to fractional-charge and fractional-spin systems. Our development allows for the fractional extension of any approximate theory that is a functional of G(0), the one-electron Green's function of the non-interacting reference system. The extension to fractional charge and fractional spin systems is based on the ensemble average of the basic variable, G(0). We demonstrate the fractional extension for the following theories: (1) any explicit functional of the one-electron density, such as the local density approximation and generalized gradient approximations; (2) any explicit functional of the one-electron density matrix of the non-interacting reference system, such as the exact exchange functional (or Hartree-Fock theory) and hybrid functionals; (3) many-body perturbation theory; and (4) random-phase approximations. A general rule for such an extension has also been derived through scaling the orbitals and should be useful for functionals where the link to the Green's function is not obvious. The development thus enables the examination of approximate theories against known exact conditions on the fractional variables and the analysis of their failures in chemical and physical applications in terms of violations of exact conditions of the energy functionals. The present work should facilitate the calculation of chemical potentials and fundamental bandgaps with approximate functionals and many-electron theories through the energy derivatives with respect to the fractional charge. It should play an important role in developing accurate approximate density functionals and many-body theory.
The workhorse method of computational materials science is undeniably density functional theory in the Kohn-Sham framework of approximate exchange and correlation energy functionals. However, the need for highly accurate predictions of ground and excited state properties in materials science motivates the further development and exploration of alternative as well as complementary techniques. Among these alternative approaches, quantum chemical wavefunction based theories and in particular coupled cluster theory hold the promise to fill a gap in the toolbox of computational materials scientists. Coupled cluster (CC) theory provides a compelling framework of approximate infinite-order perturbation theory in the form of an exponential of cluster operators describing the true quantum many-body effects of the electronic wave function at a computational cost that, despite being significantly more expensive than DFT, scales polynomially with system size. The hierarchy of size-extensive approximate methods established in the framework of CC theory achieves systematic improvability for many materials properties. This is in contrast to currently available density functionals that often suffer from uncontrolled approximations that limit the accuracy in the prediction of materials properties. In this tutorial-style review we will introduce basic concepts of coupled cluster theory and recent developments that increase its computational efficiency for calculations of molecules, solids and materials in general. We will touch upon the connection between coupled cluster theory and the random-phase approximation to bridge the gap between traditional quantum chemistry and many-body Green’s function theories that are widely-used in the field of solid state physics. We will discuss various approaches to improve the computational performance without compromising accuracy. These approaches include large-scale parallel design as well as techniques that reduce the prefactor of the computational complexity. A central part of this article discusses the convergence of calculated properties to the thermodynamic limit which is of significant importance for reliable predictions of materials properties and constitutes an additional challenge compared to calculations of large molecules. Furthermore we mention technical aspects of computer code implementations of periodic coupled cluster theories in different numerical frameworks of the one-electron orbital basis; the projector-augmented-wave formalism using a plane wave basis set and the numeric atom-centered-orbital with resolution-of-identity.
Scope The book focuses primarily on many-body (or better, many-electron) methods for electron correlation. These include Rayleigh–Schrödinger perturbation theory (RSPT) , particularly in its diagrammatic representation (referred to as many-body perturbation theory , or MBPT ), and coupled-cluster (CC) theory; their relationship to configuration interaction (CI) is included. Further extensions address properties other than the energy, and also excited states and multireference CC and MBPT methods. The many-body algebraic and diagrammatic methods used in electronic structure theory have their origin in quantum field theory and in the study of nuclear matter and nuclear structure. The second-quantization formalism was first introduced in a treatment of quantized fields by Dirac (1927) and was extended to fermion systems by Jordan and Klein (1927) and by Jordan and Wigner (1928). This formalism is particularly useful in field theory, in scattering problems and in the study of infinite systems because it easily handles problems involving infinite, indefinite or variable numbers of particles. The diagrammatic approach was introduced into field theory by Feynman (1949a,b) and applied to many-body systems by Hugenholtz (1957) and by Goldstone (1957). Many-body perturbation theory and its linked-diagram formalism were first introduced by Brueckner and Levinson (1955) and by Brueckner (1955), and were formalized by Goldstone (1957). Other important contributions to the methodology, first in field theory and then in the theory of nuclear structure, are due to Dyson (1949a,b), Wick (1950), Hubbard (1957, 1958a,b) and Frantz and Mills (1960). Applications to the electronic structure of atoms and molecules began with the work of Kelly (1963, 1964a,b, 1968), and molecular applications using finite analytical basis sets appeared in the work of Bartlett and Silver (1974a, b).