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Molecules

A Cost-Effective Treatment of Spin–Orbit Couplings in the State-Averaged Driven Similarity Renormalization Group Second-Order Perturbation Theory

Meng Wang, Chenyang Li

Published May 7, 2025• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We present an economical approach to treat spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in the state-averaged driven similarity renormalization group second-order perturbation theory (SA-DSRG-PT2). The electron correlation is first introduced by forming the SA-DSRG-PT2 dressed spin-free Hamiltonian. This Hamiltonian is then augmented with the Breit-Pauli Hamiltonian and diagonalized using spin-pure reference states to obtain the SOC-corrected energy spectrum. The spin-orbit mean-field approximation is also assumed to reduce the cost associated with the two-electron spin-orbit integrals. The resulting method is termed BP1-SA-DSRG-PT2c, and it possesses the same computational scaling as the non-relativistic counterpart, where only the one- and two-body density cumulants are required to obtain the vertical transition energy. The accuracy of BP1-SA-DSRG-PT2c is assessed on a few atoms and small molecules, including main-group diatomic molecules, transition-metal atoms, and actinide dioxide cations. Numerical results suggest that BP1-SA-DSRG-PT2c performs comparably to other internally contracted multireference perturbation theories with SOC treated using the state interaction scheme.

DOI
10.3390/molecules30092082

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We present an economical approach to treat spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in the state-averaged driven similarity renormalization group second-order perturbation theory (SA-DSRG-PT2). The electron correlation is first introduced by forming the SA-DSRG-PT2 dressed spin-free Hamiltonian. This Hamiltonian is then augmented with the Breit-Pauli Hamiltonian and diagonalized using spin-pure reference states to obtain the SOC-corrected energy spectrum. The spin-orbit mean-field approximation is also assumed to reduce the cost associated with the two-electron spin-orbit integrals. The resulting method is termed BP1-SA-DSRG-PT2c, and it possesses the same computational scaling as the non-relativistic counterpart, where only the one- and two-body density cumulants are required to obtain the vertical transition energy. The accuracy of BP1-SA-DSRG-PT2c is assessed on a few atoms and small molecules, including main-group diatomic molecules, transition-metal atoms, and actinide dioxide cations. Numerical results suggest that BP1-SA-DSRG-PT2c performs comparably to other internally contracted multireference perturbation theories with SOC treated using the state interaction scheme.
We present a reduced-cost implementation of the state-averaged driven similarity renormalization group (SA-DSRG) based on the frozen natural orbital (FNO) approach. The natural orbitals (NOs) are obtained by diagonalizing the one-body reduced density matrix from SA-DSRG second-order perturbation theory (SA-DSRG-PT2). We consider three criteria to truncate the virtual NOs for the subsequent electron correlation treatment beyond SA-DSRG-PT2. An additive second-order correction is applied to the SA-DSRG Hamiltonian to reintroduce correlation effects from the discarded orbitals. The FNO SA-DSRG method is benchmarked on 35 small organic molecules in the QUEST database. When keeping 98–99% of the cumulative occupation numbers, the mean absolute error in the vertical transition energies due to FNO is less than 0.01 eV. Using the same FNO threshold, we observe a speedup of 9 times compared to the conventional SA-DSRG implementation for nickel carbonyl with a quadruple-ζ basis set. The FNO approach enables nonperturbative SA-DSRG computations on chloroiron corrole [FeCl(C 19 H 11 N 4 )] with more than 1000 basis functions, surpassing the current limit of a conventional implementation.
We derive analytic energy gradients of the driven similarity renormalization group (DSRG) multireference second-order perturbation theory (MRPT2) using the method of Lagrange multipliers. In the Lagrangian, we impose constraints for a complete-active-space self-consistent-field reference wave function and the semicanonical orthonormal molecular orbitals. Solving the associated Lagrange multipliers is found to share the same asymptotic scaling of a single DSRG-MRPT2 energy computation. A pilot implementation of the DSRG-MRPT2 analytic gradients is used to optimize the geometry of the singlet and triplet states of p-benzyne. The equilibrium bond lengths and angles are similar to those computed via other MRPT2s and Mukherjee's multireference coupled cluster theory. An approximate DSRG-MRPT2 method that neglects the contributions of three-body density cumulant is found to introduce negligible errors in the geometry of p-benzyne, lending itself to a promising low-cost approach for molecular geometry optimizations using large active spaces.
Spin Orbit Coupling (SOC) is introduced to molecular ab initio density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) calculations. In the presented scheme, one first approximates the electronic ground state and a number of excited states of the Born-Oppenheimer (BO) Hamiltonian with the aid of the DMRG algorithm. Owing to the spin-adaptation of the algorithm, the total spin S is a good quantum number for these states. After the non-relativistic DMRG calculation is finished, all magnetic sublevels of the calculated states are constructed explicitly, and the SOC operator is expanded in the resulting basis. To this end, spin orbit coupled energies and wavefunctions are obtained as eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the full Hamiltonian matrix which is composed of the SOC operator matrix and the BO Hamiltonian matrix. This treatment corresponds to a quasi-degenerate perturbation theory approach and can be regarded as the molecular equivalent to atomic Russell-Saunders coupling. For the evaluation of SOC matrix elements, the full Breit-Pauli SOC Hamiltonian is approximated by the widely used spin-orbit mean field operator. This operator allows for an efficient use of the second quantized triplet replacement operators that are readily generated during the non-relativistic DMRG algorithm, together with the Wigner-Eckart theorem. With a set of spin-orbit coupled wavefunctions at hand, the molecular g-tensors are calculated following the scheme proposed by Gerloch and McMeeking. It interprets the effective molecular g-values as the slope of the energy difference between the lowest Kramers pair with respect to the strength of the applied magnetic field. Test calculations on a chemically relevant Mo complex demonstrate the capabilities of the presented method.
Applications of the similarity renormalization group (SRG) approach [F. Wegner, Ann. Phys. 506, 77 (1994) and S. D. Głazek and K. G. Wilson, Phys. Rev. D 49, 4214 (1994)] to the formulation of useful many-body theories of electron correlation are considered. In addition to presenting a production-level implementation of the SRG based on a single-reference formalism, a novel integral version of the SRG is reported, in which the flow of the Hamiltonian is driven by a source operator. It is shown that this driven SRG (DSRG) produces a Hamiltonian flow that is analogous to that of the SRG. Compared to the SRG, which requires propagating a set of ordinary differential equations, the DSRG is computationally advantageous since it consists of a set of polynomial equations. The equilibrium distances, harmonic vibrational frequencies, and vibrational anharmonicities of a series of diatomic molecules computed with the SRG and DSRG approximated with one- and two-body normal ordered operators are in good agreement with benchmark values from coupled cluster with singles, doubles, and perturbative triples. Particularly surprising results are found when the SRG and DSRG methods are applied to C2 and F2. In the former case, both methods fail to converge, while in the latter case an unbound potential energy curve is obtained. A modified commutator approximation is shown to correct these problems in the case of the DSRG method.
This work introduces various approaches to include connected three-body terms in unitary many-body theories, focusing on the driven similarity renormalization group (DSRG). Starting from the least approximate method-the linearized DSRG truncated to one-, two-, and three-body operators [LDSRG(3)]-we develop several approximate LDSRG(3) models with reduced computational cost. Through a perturbative analysis, we motivate a family of iterative LDSRG(3)-n and -n' (n = 1, 2, 3, 4) methods that contain a subset of the LDSRG(3) diagrams. Among these variants, the LDSRG(3)-2 scheme has the same computational complexity of coupled cluster theory with singles, doubles, and triples (CCSDT), but it outperforms CCSDT in the accuracy of the predicted correlation energies. We also propose and implement two perturbative triples corrections based on the linearized DSRG truncated to one- and two-body operators augmented with recursive semi-quadratic commutators [qDSRG(2)]. The resulting qDSRG(2)+(T) approach matches the accuracy of the "gold-standard" coupled cluster theory with singles, doubles, and perturbative triples model on the energetics of twenty-eight closed-shell atoms and small molecules.
The efficient and reliable treatment of both spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and electron correlation is essential for understanding f-element chemistry. We analyze two approaches to the problem: the one-step approach, where both effects are treated simultaneously, and the two-step state interaction approach. We report an implementation of the ab initio density matrix renormalization group with a one-step treatment of the SOC effect, which can be compared to prior two-step treatments on an equal footing. Using a dysprosium octahedral complex and bridged dimer as benchmark systems, we identify characteristics of problems where the one-step approach is beneficial for obtaining the low-energy spectrum.