Our overarching goal is the development of wavefunction-based quantum chemistry methods that give good results for both weakly- and strongly-correlated systems, that preserve as many fundamental properties of the exact wavefunction as possible, and that are computationally affordable and black-box for the end user. Many of our contributions in this area are based on the archetypal quantum chemistry method, coupled-cluster theory, and they have resulted from our efforts to understand and remedy the failure of symmetry-adapted coupled-cluster theory in the presence of strong correlation. In this thesis, we recount these investigations and discuss the key insights and results that they have produced. We describe in detail the novel wavefunction approaches we have devised, as well as the approximations and considerations one must make in order to arrive at useful equations. We believe that this work could be important for the continued development of affordable methods capable of accurately describing a wide variety of quantum chemical systems.
Our overarching goal is the development of wavefunction-based quantum chemistry methods that give good results for both weakly- and strongly-correlated systems, that preserve as many fundamental properties of the exact wavefunction as possible, and that are computationally affordable and black-box for the end user. Many of our contributions in this area are based on the archetypal quantum chemistry method, coupled-cluster theory, and they have resulted from our efforts to understand and remedy the failure of symmetry-adapted coupled-cluster theory in the presence of strong correlation. In this thesis, we recount these investigations and discuss the key insights and results that they have produced. We describe in detail the novel wavefunction approaches we have devised, as well as the approximations and considerations one must make in order to arrive at useful equations. We believe that this work could be important for the continued development of affordable methods capable of accurately describing a wide variety of quantum chemical systems.
Perhaps the most important approximations to the electronic structure problem in quantum chemistry are those based on coupled cluster and density functional theories. Coupled cluster theory has been called the ``gold standard'' of quantum chemistry due to the high accuracy that it achieves for weakly correlated systems. Kohn--Sham density functionals based on semilocal approximations are, without a doubt, the most widely used methods in chemistry and material science because of their high accuracy/cost ratio. The root of the success of coupled cluster and density functionals is their ability to efficiently describe the dynamic part of the electron correlation. However, both traditional coupled cluster and density functional approximations may fail catastrophically when substantial static correlation is present. This severely limits the applicability of these methods to a plethora of important chemical and physical problems such as, e.g., the description of bond breaking, transition states, transition metal-, lanthanide- and actinide-containing compounds, and superconductivity. In an attempt to tackle this problem, nonstandard (single-reference) coupled cluster-based techniques that aim to describe static correlation have been recently developed: pair coupled cluster doubles (pCCD) and singlet-paired coupled cluster doubles (CCD0). The ability to describe static correlation in pCCD and CCD0 comes, however, at the expense of important amounts of dynamic correlation so that the high accuracy of standard coupled cluster becomes unattainable. Thus, the reliable and efficient description of static and dynamic correlation in a simultaneous manner remains an open problem for quantum chemistry and many-body theory in general. In this thesis, different ways to combine pCCD and CCD0 with density functionals in order to describe static and dynamic correlation simultaneously (and efficiently) are explored. The combination of wavefunction and density functional methods has a long history in quantum chemistry (practical implementations have appeared in the literature since the 1970s). However, this kind of techniques have not achieved widespread use due to problems such as double counting of correlation and the symmetry dilemma---the fact that wavefunction methods respect the symmetries of Hamiltonian, while modern functionals are designed to work with broken symmetry densities. Here, particular mathematical features of pCCD and CCD0 are exploited to avoid these problems in an efficient manner. The two resulting families of approximations, denoted as pCCD+DFT and CCD0+DFT, are shown to be able to describe static and dynamic correlation in standard benchmark calculations. Furthermore, it is also shown that CCD0+DFT lends itself to combination with correlation from the direct random phase approximation (dRPA). Inclusion of dRPA in the long-range via the technique of range-separation allows for the description of dispersion correlation, the remaining part of the correlation. Thus, when combined with the dRPA, CCD0+DFT can account for all three-types of electron correlation that are necessary to accurately describe molecular systems. Lastly, applications of CCD0+DFT to actinide chemistry are considered in this work. The accuracy of CCD0+DFT for predicting equilibrium geometries and vibrational frequencies of actinide molecules and ions is assessed and compared to that of well-established quantum chemical methods. For this purpose, the f0 actinyl series (UO22+, NpO23+, PuO24+), the isoelectronic NUN, and Thorium (ThO, ThO2+) and Nobelium (NoO, NoO2) oxides are studied. It is shown that the CCD0+DFT description of these species agrees with available experimental data and is comparable with the results given by the highest-level calculations that are possible for such heavy compounds while being, at least, an order of magnitude lower in computational cost.
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.
Electron pairs have an illustrious history in chemistry, from powerful concepts to understanding structural stability and reactive changes to the promise of serving as building blocks of quantitative descriptions of the electronic structure of complex molecules and materials. However, traditionally, two-electron wavefunctions (geminals) have not enjoyed the popularity and widespread use of the more standard single-particle methods. This has changed recently, with a renewed interest in the development of geminal wavefunctions as an alternative to describing strongly correlated phenomena. Hence, there is a need to find geminal methods that are accurate, computationally tractable, and do not demand significant input from the user (particularly via cumbersome and often ill-behaved orbital optimization steps). Here, we propose new families of geminal wavefunctions inspired by the pair coupled cluster doubles ansatz. We present a new hierarchy of two-electron wavefunctions that extends the one-reference orbital idea to other geminals. Moreover, we show how to incorporate single-like excitations in this framework without leaving the quasiparticle picture. We explore the role of imposing seniority restrictions on these wavefunctions and benchmark these new methods on model strongly correlated systems.
The pursuit of accurate and computationally efficient many-body tools capable\nof describing electron correlation is a major effort of the quantum chemistry\ncommunity. The accuracy of chemical predictions strongly depends on the ability\nof the models to account for electron correlation. As the computational\ndemand scales unfavourably with the size of the system, an efficient way of\nidentifying relevant degrees of freedom may be an interesting avenue.\n\nIn this thesis, a quantum embedding approach is employed to study lattice\nsystems, polymers, and crystals. Numerical data shows the\naccuracy of the quantum embedding theory when combined with high-level\nmany-body techniques. As the size of the units that are embedded\ngrows, a more approximate and more computationally affordable\ntools are called for. In this thesis, we investigate the possibility of\nforming such methods in the framework of coupled cluster theory.\n\nWe believe that the tools presented in this thesis could be important\nfor accurate treatment of electron correlation in applications to\nrealistic materials.
Accurately predicting the effects of correlations caused by strong interactions between electrons represents one of the key unsolved challenges in quantum chemistry. This thesis details theoretical developments addressing two aspects of this challenge. First, advances in Canonical Transformation (CT) theory address the task of describing weak interactions between the chemically active valence electrons and the chemically inert core electrons when the valence electrons are strongly correlated. Second, new methodologies for Jastrow factor wavefunctions are explored in an attempt to describe strong interactions amongst the valence electrons. In its original form, CT theory suffered from poorly understood numerical instabilities in strongly interacting systems and poor accuracy relative to coupled cluster theory in weakly interacting systems. Here the numeric issues are identified as consequences of CT theory's central approximation and shown to be similar to the intruder states of many-body perturbation theory. It is demonstrated that these instabilities can be avoided by placing particular restrictions on the theory's degrees of freedom. In weakly interacting systems, we show that using a quadratic, rather than linear, commutator approximation improves accuracy, and that the accuracy in any system can be improved by making use of the system's 3-body reduced density matrix. These improvements are demonstrated in a variety of systems, including N2 , H2 O, NiO, and free base porphin. Jastrow factor wavefunctions have traditionally been handled using quan- tum Monte Carlo techniques such as variational Monte Carlo (VMC). Here we explore how VMC can be made to accommodate the unconventionally large numbers of variational parameters present in many-body Jastrow factors and show that the stochastic reconfiguration algorithm can be thus improved by employing the method of conjugate gradients to solve its central linear equation. In addition to extending the reach of VMC, we have also developed nonstochastic methods for working with Jastrow factor wavefunctions that do not rely on random sampling. These methods, similar in design to those used with the coupled cluster wavefunction, produce energies very close to those of VMC in applications to the Heisenberg, spinless Hubbard, and full Hubbard model Hamiltonians.
The works included in this thesis aim to extend the applications of pair-coupled cluster doubles (pCCD) theory. pCCD produces reliable results for strongly correlated chemical systems and performs better than other traditional quantum chemical methods. Still, achieving greater accuracy requires post-pCCD corrections, which steeply increase computational cost, limiting its widespread application. Quantum embedding approaches, which reserve accurate but high-cost methods for the active site of chemical change and approximated methods for other regions of a chemical system, can be used to circumvent this problem. In this context, two new pCCD-based embedding formulations have been implemented and tested. Both the pCCD-in-DFT and pCCD-in-pCCD methods produce reliable results across a wide range of intermolecular interactions. In particular, the latter method shows significantly better performance, as it does not depend on approximated density functionals. Additionally, estimation of molecular properties is also pertinent for practical applications with pCCD. As the traditional response-theory-based formulation for pCCD analyzed here did not meet the required level of accuracy, an alternate approach based on the expectation-value method was implemented for pCCD and post-pCCD methods. This approach produces excellent agreement with the references at a much lower computational cost, as we bypass the need to solve the response equations. Thus, the pCCD-in-pCCD embedding method and the expectation-value-pCCD approach provide routes for large-scale simulations of challenging, complex systems.