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Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics

Geminal-based electronic structure methods in quantum chemistry. Toward a geminal model chemistry

Paweł Tecmer, Katharina Bogusławski

Published Jan 1, 2022• 64 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In this review, we discuss the recent progress in developing geminal-based theories for challenging problems in quantum chemistry. Specifically, we focus on the antisymmetrized geminal power, generalized valence bond, antisymmetrized product of strongly orthogonal geminals, singlet-type orthogonal geminals, the antisymmetric product of 1-reference orbital geminal, also known as the pair coupled cluster doubles ansatz, and geminals constructed from Richardson-Gaudin states. Furthermore, we review various corrections to account for the missing dynamical correlation effects in geminal models and possible extensions to target electronically excited states and open-shell species. Finally, we discuss some numerical examples and present-day challenges for geminal-based models, including a quantitative and qualitative analysis of wave functions, and software availability.

DOI
10.1039/d2cp02528k

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The Journal of Chemical Physics•Nov 4, 2025•0 citations
In this review, we discuss the recent progress in developing geminal-based theories for challenging problems in quantum chemistry. Specifically, we focus on the antisymmetrized geminal power, generalized valence bond, antisymmetrized product of strongly orthogonal geminals, singlet-type orthogonal geminals, the antisymmetric product of 1-reference orbital geminal, also known as the pair coupled cluster doubles ansatz, and geminals constructed from Richardson-Gaudin states. Furthermore, we review various corrections to account for the missing dynamical correlation effects in geminal models and possible extensions to target electronically excited states and open-shell species. Finally, we discuss some numerical examples and present-day challenges for geminal-based models, including a quantitative and qualitative analysis of wave functions, and software availability.
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.
Slater determinants underpin most electronic structure methods, but orbital-based approaches often struggle to describe strong correlation efficiently. Geminal-based theories, by contrast, naturally capture static correlation in bond-breaking and multi-reference problems, though at the expense of implementation complexity and limited treatment of dynamic effects. In this work, we examine the interplay between orbital and geminal frameworks, focusing on perfect-pairing (PP) wavefunctions and their relation to pair coupled-cluster doubles (pCCD) and Richardson-Gaudin states. We show that PP arises as an eigenvector of a simplified, reduced Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer Hamiltonian expressed in bonding/antibonding orbital pairs, with the complementary eigenvectors enabling a systematic treatment of weak correlation. Second-order Epstein-Nesbet perturbation theory on top of PP is found to yield energies nearly equivalent to pCCD. These results clarify the role of pair-based ansätze and open avenues for hybrid approaches that combine the strengths of orbital- and geminal-based methods.
Geminal wavefunctions, introduced in the late 1950s, have long been recognized for their ability to compactly capture strong electron correlation. Despite their promise, they were historically overshadowed by more computationally efficient methods. Advances in both computational resources and theoretical frameworks have renewed interest in geminal-based approaches, particularly as researchers seek accurate yet tractable wavefunctions for complex electronic systems. Recent developments highlight their versatility: from serving as efficient starting points for correlated wavefunctions, to hybrid formulations that blend geminal concepts with coupled-cluster theory, to emerging applications in quantum algorithms where orbital-pairing provides a natural structure. In this mini-review, we summarize key advances in geminal wavefunction theory, with a focus on their modern resurgence, new methodological innovations, and potential directions for electronic structure theory and quantum computation.
The Lewis electron-pair picture pervades all of chemistry and a substantialdomain of materials science. “Geminals” are electron-pair quantum states whichare used to express approximate solutions of the Schrödinger equation of polyelec-tronic systems. In quantum chemistry, geminal-based methods are potentially moreeffective than the traditional ones based on the orbital picture: electrons occupyorbitals and experience only the average effect of each other. This is especially truefor strongly correlated-systems. However, the computational cost of using arbitrarygeminal wave functions is non-polynomial in the system size.It is therefore an important challenge to find additional constraints on geminalmodels which preserve the accuracy of the wavefunction description while reducingthe calculations to polynomial cost. The Ayers’ group at Mc Master has developedone such successful geminal model called AP1roG because the wavefunction is anantisymmetric product of geminals with one distinct reference orbital occupied ineach geminal [1]. This ansatz relaxes the so-called “strong-orthogonality” constraintbetween geminals. The latter makes wavefunction matrix element computationsvery easy but appears too drastic from the physical point of view, since the geminalelectron pairs are then distinguishable.We have followed a different path to relax the strong-orthogonality constraint. Wehave defined the geometrical concept of n-orthogonality [2] which can be viewed asa graded indistinguishability measure for electronic states: 1-orthogonality coincideswith strong orthogonality, the larger n the less distinguishable the n-orthogonal elec-tronic states will be. We have studied geminal models constrained by n-orthogonalityrelations for different values of n, imposed to different combinations of geminal prod-uct states [3]. However, in this work the scaling of matrix element computations wasstill unsatisfactory. We will present new ideas developed since then to remedy thisproblem.References[1] P. A Limacher, P. W. Ayers, P. A. Johnson, S. De Baerdemacker, D. Van Neck and P. Bultinck, J. of Chem. Theory and Computation 9, 1394-1401 (2013).[2] P. Cassam-Chenaı̈, Phys. Rev. A77, 032103 (2008).[3] P. Cassam-Chenaı̈, V. Rassolov, Chem. Phys. Lett. 487, 147-152 (2010).
Geminals are counterparts of two‐electron chemical bonds and lone pairs in the realm of wave functions. Antisymmetrized products of geminals provide a solid framework for studies of electron pairing in molecular systems. Natural advantages of geminal wave functions such as the correct description of bond breaking and formation make them a powerful model for electronic structure calculations. The concerted efforts to develop geminal‐based methods concentrate on increasing their accuracy and universality. The downside is the high computational cost limiting applications to small and toy systems. In contrast, the inherent local structure of optimal geminals opens pathways to development of methods for large systems. In particular, perspectives for linear scaling and hybrid quantum/classical approaches using geminals are discussed. The same principles are proposed for development of computational schemes for covalently bound and molecular crystals. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
A new family of geminal Ansätze called antisymmetrized product of 2D-block geminals (AP2D-BG) has been introduced recently to solve the electronic Schrödinger equation of molecules. They build on an antisymmetrized product of strongly orthogonal geminals (APSG) while lifting the "strong orthogonality" and "seniority zero" restrictions. The combinatorics to select the excitations which can be added to each geminal of the product grows exponentially with the number of geminals. However, in this study on diatomic molecules, we present simple guidelines to drastically reduce the number of excitations, which are useful to lower the electronic energy in variational calculations. Although different regimes to partition the orbital space into 1D- and 2D-blocks in an optimal way are observed along the potential energy curves (PEC), a simple strategy for choosing the block types associated to the geminals in each 2D-block is found successful in all cases. This makes the method quite practical to use. Moreover, the optimal geminals can be easily related to classical Lewis structures of chemistry. The quality of the PECs is assessed by calculating equilibrium geometries and fundamental frequencies; the improvement with respect to APSG is discussed.