E. van Lenthe

Relativistic regular two-component Hamiltonians.

In this paper, potential‐dependent transformations are used to transform the four‐component Dirac Hamiltonian to effective two‐component regular Hamiltonians. To zeroth order, the expansions give second order differential equations (just like the Schrodinger equation), which already contain the most important relativistic effects, including spin–orbit coupling. One of the zero order Hamiltonians is identical to the one obtained earlier by Chang, Pelissier, and Durand [Phys. Scr. 34, 394 (1986)]. Self‐consistent all‐electron and frozen‐core calculations are performed as well as first order perturbation calculations for the case of the uranium atom using these Hamiltonians. They give very accurate results, especially for the one‐electron energies and densities of the valence orbitals.

Relativistic total energy using regular approximations

In this paper we will discuss relativistic total energies using the zeroth order regular approximation (ZORA). A simple scaling of the ZORA one‐electron Hamiltonian is shown to yield energies for the hydrogenlike atom that are exactly equal to the Dirac energies. The regular approximation is not gauge invariant in each order, but the scaled ZORA energy can be shown to be exactly gauge invariant for hydrogenic ions. It is practically gauge invariant for many‐electron systems and proves superior to the (unscaled) first order regular approximation for atomic ionization energies. The regular approximation, if scaled, can therefore be applied already in zeroth order to molecular bond energies. Scalar relativistic density functional all‐electron and frozen core calculations on diatomics, consisting of copper, silver, and gold and their hydrides are presented. We used exchange‐correlation energy functionals commonly used in nonrelativistic calculations; both in the local‐density approximation (LDA) and including...

Optimized Slater‐type basis sets for the elements 1–118

Seven different types of Slater type basis sets for the elements H (Z = 1) up to E118 (Z = 118), ranging from a double zeta valence quality up to a quadruple zeta valence quality, are tested in their performance in neutral atomic and diatomic oxide calculations. The exponents of the Slater type functions are optimized for the use in (scalar relativistic) zeroth‐order regular approximated (ZORA) equations. Atomic tests reveal that, on average, the absolute basis set error of 0.03 kcal/mol in the density functional calculation of the valence spinor energies of the neutral atoms with the largest all electron basis set of quadruple zeta quality is lower than the average absolute difference of 0.16 kcal/mol in these valence spinor energies if one compares the results of ZORA equation with those of the fully relativistic Dirac equation. This average absolute basis set error increases to about 1 kcal/mol for the all electron basis sets of triple zeta valence quality, and to approximately 4 kcal/mol for the all electron basis sets of double zeta quality. The molecular tests reveal that, on average, the calculated atomization energies of 118 neutral diatomic oxides MO, where the nuclear charge Z of M ranges from Z = 1–118, with the all electron basis sets of triple zeta quality with two polarization functions added are within 1–2 kcal/mol of the benchmark results with the much larger all electron basis sets, which are of quadruple zeta valence quality with four polarization functions added. The accuracy is reduced to about 4–5 kcal/mol if only one polarization function is used in the triple zeta basis sets, and further reduced to approximately 20 kcal/mol if the all electron basis sets of double zeta quality are used. The inclusion of g‐type STOs to the large benchmark basis sets had an effect of less than 1 kcal/mol in the calculation of the atomization energies of the group 2 and group 14 diatomic oxides. The basis sets that are optimized for calculations using the frozen core approximation (frozen core basis sets) have a restricted basis set in the core region compared to the all electron basis sets. On average, the use of these frozen core basis sets give atomic basis set errors that are approximately twice as large as the corresponding all electron basis set errors and molecular atomization energies that are close to the corresponding all electron results. Only if spin‐orbit coupling is included in the frozen core calculations larger errors are found, especially for the heavier elements, due to the additional approximation that is made that the basis functions are orthogonalized on scalar relativistic core orbitals.

The zero-order regular approximation for relativistic effects: The effect of spin-orbit coupling in closed shell molecules

In this paper we will calculate the effect of spin–orbit coupling on properties of closed shell molecules, using the zero‐order regular approximation to the Dirac equation. Results are obtained using density functionals including density gradient corrections. Close agreement with experiment is obtained for the calculated molecular properties of a number of heavy element diatomic molecules.

Relativistic regular two‐component Hamiltonians

It is shown how the regularized two-component relativistic Hamiltonians of Heully et al. and Chang, Pelissier, and Durand can be viewed as arising from a perturbation expansion that unlike the Pauli expansion remains regular even for singular attractive Coulomb potentials. The performance of these approximate Hamiltonians is tested in the framework of the local density approximation and the relation of their spectrum to that of the Dirac Hamiltonian is discussed. The circumstances under which the current approximations are superior to the Pauli Hamiltonian are analyzed. Finally, it shown how the Hamiltonians could be used within the context of conventional Hartree-Fock theory.

Density functional calculations of nuclear magnetic shieldings using the zeroth-order regular approximation (ZORA) for relativistic effects: ZORA nuclear magnetic resonance

We present a new relativistic formulation for the calculation of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) shielding tensors. The formulation makes use of gauge-including atomic orbitals and is based on density functional theory. The relativistic effects are included by making use of the zeroth-order regular approximation. This formulation has been implemented and the 199Hg NMR shifts of HgMe2, HgMeCN, Hg(CN)2, HgMeCl, HgMeBr, HgMeI, HgCl2, HgBr2, and HgI2 have been calculated using both experimental and optimized geometries. For experimental geometries, good qualitative agreement with experiment is obtained. Quantitatively, the calculated results deviate from experiment on average by 163 ppm, which is approximately 3% of the range of 199Hg NMR. The experimental effects of an electron donating solvent on the mercury shifts have been reproduced with calculations on HgCl2(NH3)2, HgBr2(NH3)2, and HgI2(NH3)2. In addition, it is shown that the mercury NMR shieldings are sensitive to geometry with changes for HgCl2 of a...

Exact solutions of regular approximate relativistic wave equations for hydrogen‐like atoms

Apart from relativistic effects originating from high kinetic energy of an electron in a flat potential, which are treated in first order by the Pauli Hamiltonian, there are relativistic effects even for low‐energy electrons if they move in a strong Coulomb potential. The latter effects can be accurately treated already in the zeroth order of an expansion of the Foldy–Wouthuysen transformation, if the expansion is carefully chosen to be nondivergent for r→0 even for Coulomb potentials, as shown by Van Lenthe et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 99, 4597 (1993)] (cf. also Heully et al. [J. Phys. B 19, 2799 (1986)] and Chang et al. [Phys. Scr. 34, 394 (1986)]). In the present paper, it is shown that the solutions of the zeroth order of this two‐component regular approximate (ZORA) equation for hydrogen‐like atoms are simply scaled solutions of the large component of the Dirac wave function for this problem. The eigenvalues are related in a similar way. As a consequence, it is proven that under some restrictions, the ZORA...

The ZORA formalism applied to the Dirac-Fock equation.

Abstract The zeroth-order regular approximation (ZORA), a two component approximation to the Dirac equation that was earlier formulated and tested within the framework of density functional theory, is generalized to a treatment based on the Dirac-Fock equation. The performance of the ZORA equation and an improvement known as scaled ZORA is investigated, in particular with respect to orbital energies and various radial expectation values in the case of the xenon and radon atoms. The results of the simple ZORA approximation are shown to be quite close to the full Dirac-Fock method, except in the deep core region where the scaled version of the method is needed. It is found that a further approximation in which the density is calculated from the two-component ZORA orbitals alone gives satisfactory results, which is an important result from a practical point of view since in this way one can avoid calculating any two-electron integrals involving small-component basis functions.

Four component regular relativistic Hamiltonians and the perturbational treatment of Dirac's equation.

By combining the ideas of the direct perturbation theory approach to the solution of the Dirac equation with those underlying the regular expansion as used to obtain the two‐component Chang–Pelissier–Durand Hamiltonian, a four‐component form of the regular expansion is proposed. This formulation lends itself naturally to systematic improvement by a nonsingular form of perturbation theory. Alternatively it can be viewed as a double perturbation version of direct perturbation theory, where relativistic effects on the Hamiltonian and the metric are considered separately and the Hamiltonian perturbation is summed to infinite order. The scaling procedure that was earlier shown to be exact in the case of a hydrogenic potential and that greatly improved the core orbital energies, is found to follow naturally from the current formulation. The accuracy of the various approximations to the wave functions is assessed with respect to several radial expectation values weighing different regions in the uranium atom as a test case.

Accurate Coulomb Potentials for Periodic and Molecular Systems through Density Fitting

We present a systematically improvable density fitting scheme designed for accurate Coulomb potential evaluation of periodic and molecular systems. The method does not depend on the way the density is calculated, allowing for a basis set expansion as well as a numerical representations of the orbitals. The scheme is characterized by a partitioning of the density into local contributions that are expanded by means of cubic splines. For three-dimensional periodic systems, the long-range contribution to the Coulomb potential is treated with the usual reciprocal space representation of the multipole moments, while in one- and two-dimensional systems, it is calculated via a new algorithm based on topological extrapolation. The efficiency and numerical robustness of the scheme is assessed for a number of periodic and nonperiodic systems within the framework of density-functional theory.