Quantum-mechanical calculations based on Kohn–Sham density functional theory (DFT) played a significant role in accurately predicting various aspects of materials behavior over the past decade. The Kohn–Sham approach to DFT reduces the many-body Schrodinger (eigen value) problem of interacting electrons into an equivalent problem of noninteracting electrons in an effective mean field that is governed by electron-density. Despite the reduced computational complexity of Kohn–Sham DFT, large-scale DFT calculations are still computationally very demanding with the resulting computational complexity scaling cubically with number of atoms in a given materials system. Numerical algorithms with reduced scaling behavior which are robust, computationally efficient and scalable on parallel computing architectures are always desirable to enable simulations at larger scales and on more complex systems. Following this line of thought, this study explores the use of tensor structured methods for ab-initio numerical solution of Kohn–Sham equations arising in DFT calculations. Earlier studies on tensor-structured methods have been quite successful in the accurate calculation of Hartree and the nonlocal exchange operators arising in the Hartree–Fock equations. A recent investigation of low-rank Tucker-type decomposition of the electron-density of large aluminum clusters (obtained from the finite-element discretization of orbital free DFT) shows the exponential decay of approximation error with respect to Tucker rank (number of tensor-basis functions in Tucker type representation). The results also indicate a smaller Tucker rank for the accurate representation of the electron density and is only weakly dependent on the system sizes studied. The promising success of tensor-structured techniques in resolving the electronic structure of material systems has enabled us to take a step further. In this study, we propose a systematic way of computing a globally adapted Tucker-type basis for solving the Kohn–Sham DFT problem by using a separable approximation of the Kohn–Sham Hamiltonian. Further, the resulting Kohn–Sham eigenvalue problem is projected into the aforementioned Tucker basis and is solved for ground-state energy using a self-consistent field iteration. The rank of the resulting Tucker representation and the computational complexity of the calculation are examined on representative benchmark examples involving metallic and insulating systems.
In the near future, material and drug design may be aided by quantum computer assisted simulations. These have the potential to target chemical systems intractable by the most powerful classical computers. However, the resources offered by contemporary quantum computers are still limited, restricting the simulations to very simple molecules. In order to rapidly scale up to more interesting molecular systems, we propose the embedding of the quantum electronic structure calculation into a classically computed environment obtained at the Hartree-Fock (HF) or density functional theory (DFT) level of theory. This result is achieved by constructing an effective Hamiltonian that incorporates a mean field potential describing the action of the inactive electrons on a selected Active Space (AS). The ground state of the AS Hamiltonian is then determined by means of the variational quantum eigensolver algorithm. We show that with the proposed HF and DFT embedding schemes, we can obtain significant energy corrections to the reference HF and DFT calculations for a number of simple molecules in their strongly correlated limit (the dissociation regime) as well as for systems of the size of the oxirane molecule.
We have recently shown how program synthesis (PS), or the concept of "self-writing code", can generate novel algorithms that solve the vibrational Schrodinger equation, providing approximations to the allowed wave functions for bound, one-dimensional (1-D) potential energy surfaces (PESs).The resulting algorithms use a grid-based representation of the underlying wave function ψ(x) and PES V(x), providing codes which represent approximations to standard discrete variable representation (DVR) methods.In this Article, we show how this inductive PS strategy can be improved and modified to enable prediction of both vibrational wave functions and energy eigenvalues of representative model PESs (both 1-D and multidimensional).We show that PS can generate algorithms that offer some improvements in energy eigenvalue accuracy over standard DVR schemes; however, we also demonstrate that PS can identify accurate numerical methods that exhibit desirable computational features, such as employing very sparse (tridiagonal) matrices.The resulting PS-generated algorithms are initially developed and tested for 1-D vibrational eigenproblems, before solution of multidimensional problems is demonstrated; we find that our new PS-generated algorithms can reduce calculation times for gridbased eigenvector computation by an order of magnitude or more.More generally, with further development and optimization, we anticipate that PS-generated algorithms based on effective Hamiltonian approximations, such as those proposed here, could be useful in direct simulations of quantum dynamics via wave function propagation and evaluation of molecular electronic structure.
Repeated computations on the same molecular system, but with different geometries, are often performed in quantum chemistry, for instance, in ab-initio molecular dynamics simulations or geometry optimizations. While many efficient strategies exist to provide a good guess for the self-consistent field procedure, which is usually the main computational task to be performed, little is known on how to efficiently exploit in this direction the abundance of information generated during the many computations. In this article, we present a strategy to provide an accurate initial guess for the density matrix within the self-consistent field iterations for parametrized Hartree-Fock problems where the nuclear coordinates are parametrized by a few user-specified parameters such as normal modes or collective variables in general. Our approach is based on an offline-stage where the Hartree-Fock eigenvalue problem is solved for some particular parameter values and an online-stage where the initial guess is computed very efficiently for any new parameter value. The method is based on non-linear approximations of density matrices, which belong to a non-linear manifold that is isomorphic to the Grassmann manifold, by means of the so-called Grassmann exponential and logarithm in order to map the manifold onto the tangent space and thus providing the correct geometrical setting accounting for the manifold structure when working with subspaces rather than functions itself. Numerical tests on different amino acids show promising initial results.
While quantum computers have shown significant promise for electronic structure calculations, their potential to accelerate density functional theory (DFT) calculations remains unclear. In this work, we present a qubit-efficient encoding scheme for wavefunctions in Kohn--Sham (KS) DFT, together with a quantum algorithm that computes all occupied orbitals simultaneously. We further show that our algorithm is particularly well suited to the Harris functional, enabling the total energy to be evaluated with a potential exponential speedup over classical approaches by entirely avoiding the costly readout of the electronic density. In addition, we propose a second method for achieving self-consistent DFT calculations using multiple copies of the wavefunction, which likewise circumvents density readout. The applicability of our algorithms is demonstrated through several numerical examples, and their efficiency is compared with that of existing approaches.
Quantum chemistry models atoms and molecules using quantum mechanics, with the electronic structure problem at its core. This problem, which determines the energy and properties of electrons in a molecule, is exponentially hard to solve exactly on classical computers. To approximate solutions, effective models introduce layers of simplifications. However, these approximations can fail for strongly correlated systems, necessitating alternative approaches. Quantum computers, capable of processing quantum information natively, offer a promising path to simulate molecular systems beyond classical reach, with potential applications in catalysis, materials science, and photochemistry. Despite rapid advancements in quantum hardware, practical quantum computations remain challenging due to limited resources. This thesis optimizes quantum resource usage in computational chemistry, introducing novel embedding techniques and exploring applications beyond ground-state energies. Chapter 1 establishes the foundation by reviewing quantum chemistry methods, from Hartree-Fock and Density Functional Theory (DFT) to active space approaches. It also provides an introduction to quantum computing for chemistry, focusing on near-term algorithms. The following chapters present novel methods aimed at reducing quantum resource requirements and tackling problems classical methods struggle with. Chapter 2 introduces a technique to reduce the
λ-norm of the electronic structure Hamiltonian, a key measure of quantum resource demand. By transforming molecular orbitals, this method enhances sampling efficiency in Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) algorithms and reduces runtime in Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing (FTQC). Localized orbitals outperform canonical ones, and an orbital-optimization scheme is proposed to minimize the
λ-norm. Benchmarks on hydrogen chains, FeMoco, and Ruthenium complexes demonstrate its effectiveness. Chapter 3 presents the FragPT2 framework for simulating large systems with multiple interacting fragments. This method embeds each fragment in the mean field of others and applies multi-reference perturbation theory to capture inter-fragment correlations such as dispersion and charge transfer efficiently. The approach reduces computational overhead and enables scalable simulations, as shown in applications to \ce{N2} dimers, aromatic dimers, and butadiene. Chapter 4 focuses on photochemical systems, where multiple electronic states must be treated equally. The state-averaged orbital-optimized variational quantum eigensolver (SAOOVQE) is extended with analytical energy gradients and non-adiabatic couplings, enabling geometry optimizations and simulations of non-adiabatic dynamics on quantum hardware. This is demonstrated by locating the conical intersection in formaldimine, highlighting SAOOVQE’s potential for studying photoisomerization in biomolecules. Building on this, Chapter 5 develops a quantum algorithm to detect conical intersections, where the Born-Oppenheimer approximation breaks down. These intersections are characterized by a discrete Berry phase (0 or
π), representing their topological nature. The algorithm extracts this phase as a single bit of information, ensuring resilience to noise. Analytical proof and numerical validation using a toy molecular model illustrate its effectiveness for studying light-perception biochemistry and related photochemical processes. Finally, Chapter 6 explores machine learning density functionals trained on noisy quantum data. While DFT is computationally efficient, its accuracy depends on approximated exchange-correlation functionals. This work proposes a neural network-based approach to learn the exact functional from quantum data, showing that training on noisy outputs from NISQ devices can mitigate sampling errors. Applications to the Fermi-Hubbard model and other systems demonstrate its potential to generalize and provide accurate results under noise. This thesis advances quantum computational chemistry by optimizing quantum resource usage, developing new embedding strategies, and expanding the scope of quantum simulations beyond ground-state properties. These contributions pave the way for practical quantum algorithms that could revolutionize molecular simulations in the near future.