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Molecular Physics

Comparing perturbative and commutator-rank-based truncation schemes in unitary coupled-cluster theory

Justin T. Phillips, Lauren N. Koulias, Stephen H. Yuwono, A. Eugene DePrince

Published Jun 24, 2025• 6 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Unitary coupled-cluster (UCC) theory offers a promising Hermitian alternative to conventional coupled-cluster (CC) theory, but its practical implementation is hindered by the non-truncating nature of the Baker–Campbell–Hausdorff (BCH) expansion of the similarity-transformed Hamiltonian (H¯). To address this challenge, various truncation strategies have been developed to approximate H¯ in a compact and reliable manner. In this work, we compare the numerical performance of approximate UCC with single and double excitations (UCCSD) methods that employ many-body perturbation theory (MBPT) and commutator-rank-based truncation schemes. Our results indicate low-order MBPT-based schemes, such as UCC(2) and UCC(3), yield reasonable results near equilibrium, but they become unreliable at stretched geometries. Higher-order MBPT-based schemes do not necessarily improve performance, as the UCCSD(4) and UCCSD(5) amplitude equations sometimes lack solutions. In contrast, commutator-rank-based truncations exhibit greater numerical stability, with the Bernoulli representation of the BCH expansion enabling more rapid convergence to the UCCSD limit compared to the standard BCH formulation.

DOI
10.1080/00268976.2025.2522382

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Unitary coupled-cluster (UCC) theory offers a promising Hermitian alternative to conventional coupled-cluster (CC) theory, but its practical implementation is hindered by the non-truncating nature of the Baker–Campbell–Hausdorff (BCH) expansion of the similarity-transformed Hamiltonian (H¯). To address this challenge, various truncation strategies have been developed to approximate H¯ in a compact and reliable manner. In this work, we compare the numerical performance of approximate UCC with single and double excitations (UCCSD) methods that employ many-body perturbation theory (MBPT) and commutator-rank-based truncation schemes. Our results indicate low-order MBPT-based schemes, such as UCC(2) and UCC(3), yield reasonable results near equilibrium, but they become unreliable at stretched geometries. Higher-order MBPT-based schemes do not necessarily improve performance, as the UCCSD(4) and UCCSD(5) amplitude equations sometimes lack solutions. In contrast, commutator-rank-based truncations exhibit greater numerical stability, with the Bernoulli representation of the BCH expansion enabling more rapid convergence to the UCCSD limit compared to the standard BCH formulation.
Unitary coupled cluster (UCC) theory offers a promising Hermitian alternative to conventional coupled cluster (CC) theory, but its practical implementation is hindered by the non-truncating nature of the Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff (BCH) expansion of the similarity-transformed Hamiltonian (Hˉ\bar{H}Hˉ). To address this challenge, various truncation strategies have been developed to approximate Hˉ\bar{H}Hˉ in a compact and reliable manner. In this work, we compare the numerical performance of approximate UCC with single and double excitations (UCCSD) methods that employ many-body perturbation theory (MBPT) and commutator rank based truncation schemes. Our results indicate low-order MBPT-based schemes, such as UCC(2) and UCC(3), yield reasonable results near equilibrium, but they become unreliable at stretched geometries. Higher-order MBPT-based schemes do not necessarily improve performance, as the UCCSD(4) and UCCSD(5) amplitude equations sometimes lack solutions. In contrast, commutator-rank-based truncations exhibit greater numerical stability, with the Bernoulli representation of the BCH expansion enabling more rapid convergence to the UCCSD limit compared to the standard BCH formulation.
Coupled cluster methods based exclusively on double excitations are comparatively “cheap” and interesting model chemistries, as they are typically able to capture the bulk of the dynamic electron correlation effects. The trade-off in such approximations is that the effect of neglected excitations, particularly single excitations, can be considerable. Using standard and electron-pair-restricted T 2 operators to define two flavors of unitary coupled cluster doubles (UCCD) methods, we investigate the extent to which missing single excitations can be recovered from low-order corrections in many-body perturbation theory (MBPT) within the unitary coupled cluster (UCC) formalism. Our analysis includes the derivations of finite-order UCC energy functionals, which are used as a basis to define perturbative estimates of missed single excitations. This leads to the novel UCCD[4S] and UCCD[6S] methods, which consider energy corrections for missing single excitations through fourth- and sixth-order in MBPT, respectively. We also apply the same methodology to the electron-pair-restricted ansatz, but the improvements are only marginal. Our findings show that augmenting UCCD with these post hoc perturbative corrections can lead to UCCSD-quality results.
Unitary Coupled Cluster (UCC) theory is a promising variational method for electronic structure calculations, particularly for systems that exhibit strong electronic correlation and for implementation on quantum computers. However, its practical application is limited to small chemical systems with small basis sets due to its steep computational scaling, which results from its nonterminating Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff expansion. Here, we introduce an active space UCCSD(4)/MP2 approach that leverages a fourth-order many-body perturbation theory truncation of UCCSD within a selected active space while treating external excitations at the MP2 level. We explore two variants: a composite method that sums separate internal and external contributions and an interacting method that couples the amplitudes for potentially greater accuracy. We test our approach on a range of systems, including molecules from the GW100 data set in their equilibrium geometries, a moderately correlated metaphosphate hydrolysis reaction, and the strongly correlated torsion of ethylene. Our results suggest that the interacting method with canonical orbitals is robust and stable for both weakly and moderately correlated systems and accurately reproduces the full UCCSD(4) potential energy curves, including only 15-25% of the virtual orbitals in its active space. In comparison, the composite formulation exhibits greater sensitivity to the choice of orbital basis and active space size, leading to less systematic behavior across the benchmark set. For ethylene torsion, a system dominated by strong static correlation, both the composite and interacting formulations employing canonical orbitals closely track the full UCCSD(4) reference while preserving the qualitative behavior of the parent method, including the breakdown in strongly multireference regimes. This active space framework offers a computationally tractable approach for modeling correlated molecules and reactions on classical computers and provides a viable path for scaling UCC calculations for resource-constrained quantum hardware.
Unitary Coupled Cluster (UCC) theory is a promising variational method for electronic structure calculations, especially for strongly correlated systems and quantum computers. However, its practical application is limited by the steep scaling of its non-terminating Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff expansion. We introduce an active space UCCSD(4)/MP2 approach that leverages a fourth-order many-body perturbation theory truncation of UCCSD within a selected active space, while treating external excitations at the MP2 level. We explore two variants: a composite method that sums separate internal and external contributions and an interacting method that couples the amplitudes for greater accuracy. We test our approach on the GW100 dataset, a metaphosphate hydrolysis reaction, and the strongly correlated torsion of ethylene. Our results suggest that the interacting method with canonical orbitals is robust for weakly and moderately correlated systems and accurately reproduces the full UCCSD(4) potential energy curves using only 15-25% of the virtual orbitals in its active space. In comparison, the composite formulation exhibits greater sensitivity to the orbital basis and active space size, leading to less systematic behavior across the benchmark set. For ethylene torsion, a system dominated by strong static correlation, both composite and interacting formulations employing canonical orbitals closely track the full UCCSD(4) reference but do not alleviate the unphysical features inherited from the underlying single-reference UCCSD(4) description. This active space framework offers a tractable approach for modeling correlated molecules and reactions on classical computers and provides a viable path for scaling UCC calculations for resource-constrained quantum hardware.
In this work, we introduce a perturbative correction to the unitary coupled cluster method with single and double excitations (UCCSD) that incorporates the effects of missing triple excitations through fifth-order in many-body perturbation theory (MBPT). Referred to as UCCSD[T-5], this method is benchmarked alongside the previously developed UCCSD[T] to lend insight into the behavior of perturbative triples corrections relative to UCCSDT, which inherently provides an infinite-order treatment of triple excitations, as well as full configuration interaction (FCI). Two key findings emerge from this analysis. First, UCCSD[T] consistently yields ground-state energies in closest agreement with FCI, outperforming both UCCSD[T-5] and UCCSDT. Second, UCCSD[T-5] largely emulates the behavior of UCCSDT, suggesting a close relationship between fifth- and infinite-order triple-excitation contributions. Given the growing interest in UCC ansätze for quantum computing and the limitations of current quantum hardware, these results highlight the potential of classically computed perturbative corrections within UCC theory to capture triple-excitation effects without the additional quantum resources required by the UCCSDT ansatz.
The development of a quadratic unitary coupled-cluster singles and doubles (qUCCSD) based self-consistent polarization propagator method is reported. We present a simple strategy for truncating the commutator expansion of the unitary version of coupled-cluster transformed Hamiltonian H̄. The qUCCSD method for the electronic ground state includes up to double commutators for the amplitude equations and up to cubic commutators for the energy expression. The qUCCSD excited-state eigenvalue equations include up to double commutators for the singles-singles block of H̄, single commutators for the singles-doubles and doubles-singles blocks, and the bare Hamiltonian for the doubles-doubles block. Benchmark qUCCSD calculations of the ground-state properties and excitation energies for representative molecules demonstrate significant improvement of the accuracy and robustness over the previous UCC3 scheme derived using Møller-Plesset perturbation theory.