J. P. Coe

Entanglement and density-functional theory: Testing approximations on Hooke’s atom

We present two methods of calculating the spatial entanglement of an interacting electron system within the framework of density-functional theory. These methods are tested on the model system of Hookes atom for which the spatial entanglement can be exactly calculated. We analyze how the strength of the confining potential affects the spatial entanglement and how accurately the methods that we introduced reproduce the exact trends. We also compare the results to the outcomes of standard first-order perturbation methods. The accuracies of energies and densities when using these methods are also considered.

Calculations of potential energy surfaces using Monte Carlo configuration interaction.

We apply the method of Monte Carlo configuration interaction (MCCI) to calculate ground-state potential energy curves for a range of small molecules and compare the results with full configuration interaction. We show that the MCCI potential energy curve can be calculated to relatively good accuracy, as quantified using the non-parallelity error, using only a very small fraction of the full configuration interaction space. In most cases the potential curve is of better accuracy than its constituent single-point energies. We finally test the MCCI program on systems with basis sets beyond full configuration interaction: a lattice of 50 hydrogen atoms and ethylene. The results for ethylene agree fairly well with other computational work while for the lattice of 50 hydrogens we find that the fraction of the full configuration interaction space we were able to consider appears to be too small as, although some qualitative features are reproduced, the potential curve is less accurate.

Development of Monte Carlo configuration interaction: natural orbitals and second-order perturbation theory.

Approximate natural orbitals are investigated as a way to improve a Monte Carlo configuration interaction (MCCI) calculation. We introduce a way to approximate the natural orbitals in MCCI and test these and approximate natural orbitals from Møller-Plesset perturbation theory and quadratic configuration interaction with single and double substitutions in MCCI calculations of single-point energies. The efficiency and accuracy of approximate natural orbitals in MCCI potential curve calculations for the double hydrogen dissociation of water, the dissociation of carbon monoxide, and the dissociation of the nitrogen molecule are then considered in comparison with standard MCCI when using full configuration interaction as a benchmark. We also use the method to produce a potential curve for water in an aug-cc-pVTZ basis. A new way to quantify the accuracy of a potential curve is put forward that takes into account all of the points and that the curve can be shifted by a constant. We adapt a second-order perturbation scheme to work with MCCI (MCCIPT2) and improve the efficiency of the removal of duplicate states in the method. MCCIPT2 is tested in the calculation of a potential curve for the dissociation of nitrogen using both Slater determinants and configuration state functions.

Approaching exact hyperpolarizabilities via sum-over-states Monte Carlo configuration interaction

We propose using sum-over-states calculations with the compact wavefunctions of Monte Carlo configuration interaction to approach accurate values for higher-order dipole properties up to second hyperpolarizabilities in a controlled way. We apply the approach to small systems that can generally be compared with full configuration interaction (FCI) results. We consider hydrogen fluoride with a 6-31g basis and then look at results, including frequency dependent properties, in an aug-cc-pVDZ basis. We extend one calculation beyond FCI by using an aug-cc-pVTZ basis. The properties of an H4 molecule with multireference character are calculated in an aug-cc-pVDZ basis. We then investigate this method on a strongly multireference system with a larger FCI space by modelling the properties of carbon monoxide with a stretched geometry. The behavior of the approach with increasing basis size is considered by calculating results for the neon atom using aug-cc-pVDZ to aug-cc-pVQZ. We finally test if the unusual change in polarizability between the first two states of molecular oxygen can be reproduced by this method in a 6-31g basis.

Applying Monte Carlo configuration interaction to transition metal dimers: Exploring the balance between static and dynamic correlation

We calculate potential curves for transition metal dimers using Monte Carlo configuration interaction (MCCI). These results, and their associated spectroscopic values, are compared with experimental and computational studies. The multireference nature of the MCCI wavefunction is quantified and we estimate the important orbitals. We initially consider the ground state of the chromium dimer. Next we calculate potential curves for Sc2 where we contrast the lowest triplet and quintet states. We look at the molybdenum dimer where we compare non-relativistic results with the partial inclusion of relativistic effects via effective core potentials, and report results for scandium nickel.

State-averaged Monte Carlo configuration interaction applied to electronically excited states

We introduce state-averaging into the method of Monte Carlo configuration interaction (SA-MCCI) to allow the stable and efficient calculation of excited states. We show that excited potential curves for H3, including a crossing with the ground state, can be accurately reproduced using a small fraction of the full configuration interaction (FCI) space. A recently introduced error measure for potential curves [J. P. Coe and M. J. Paterson, J. Chem. Phys. 137, 204108 (2012)] is also shown to be a fair approach when considering potential curves for multiple states. We demonstrate that potential curves for LiF using SA-MCCI agree well with the FCI results and the avoided crossing occurs correctly. The seam of conical intersections for CH2 found by Yarkony [J. Chem. Phys. 104, 2932 (1996)] is used as a test for SA-MCCI and we compare potential curves from SA-MCCI with FCI results for this system for the first three triplet states. We then demonstrate the improvement from using SA-MCCI on the dipole of the 2 (1)A1 state of carbon monoxide. We then look at vertical excitations for small organic molecules up to the size of butadiene where the SA-MCCI energies and oscillator strengths are compared with CASPT2 values [M. Schreiber, M. R. Silva-Junior, S. P. A. Sauer, and W. Thiel, J. Chem. Phys. 128, 134110 (2008)]. We finally see if the SA-MCCI results for these excitation energies can be improved by using MCCIPT2 with approximate natural orbitals when the PT2 space is not onerously large.

Monte Carlo configuration interaction applied to multipole moments, ionisation energies and electron affinities.

The method of Monte Carlo configuration interaction (MCCI) (Greer, J. Chem. Phys. 1995a, 103, 1821; Tong, Nolan, Cheng, and Greer, Comp. Phys. Comm. 2000, 142, 132) is applied to the calculation of multipole moments. We look at the ground and excited state dipole moments in carbon monoxide. We then consider the dipole of NO, the quadrupole of N2 and of BH. An octupole of methane is also calculated. We consider experimental geometries and also stretched bonds. We show that these nonvariational quantities may be found to relatively good accuracy when compared with full configuration interaction results, yet using only a small fraction of the full configuration interaction space. MCCI results in the aug‐cc‐pVDZ basis are seen to generally have reasonably good agreement with experiment. We also investigate the performance of MCCI when applied to ionisation energies and electron affinities of atoms in an aug‐cc‐pVQZ basis. We compare the MCCI results with full configuration interaction quantum Monte Carlo (Booth and Alavi, J. Chem. Phys. 2010, 132, 174104; Cleland, Booth, and Alavi, J. Chem. Phys. 2011, 134, 024112) and “exact” nonrelativistic results (Booth and Alavi, J. Chem. Phys. 2010, 132, 174104; Cleland, Booth, and Alavi, J. Chem. Phys. 2011, 134, 024112). We show that MCCI could be a useful alternative for the calculation of atomic ionisation energies however electron affinities appear much more challenging for MCCI. Due to the small magnitude of the electron affinities their percentage errors can be high, but with regards to absolute errors MCCI performs similarly for ionisation energies and electron affinities.

Investigating Multireference Character and Correlation in Quantum Chemistry

We review a range of multireference diagnostics for quantum chemistry and discuss them in terms of choices of the molecular orbitals. We show how an approach1 of P.-O. Löwdin can also be viewed as quantifying the electron correlation via the spatial entanglement relative to a single determinant. We consider three example systems from quantum chemistry that exhibit three different combinations of multireference character and correlation: not strongly multireference and not strongly correlated, strongly multireference but not strongly correlated, and strongly multireference together with strong correlation. We find that a multireference measure (MR) does not change substantially with the cutoff used for a Monte Carlo configuration interaction calculation and investigate the effect of using natural orbitals. We see that a coupled-cluster singles and doubles diagnostic and a density-functional theory diagnostic give a correct general prediction of the multireference character for these systems. We also look at the issue of multireference character for a collection of noninteracting hydrogen molecules and the effect of basis size on the multireference character of a stretched hydrogen molecule.

Quantum Mechanics in Metric Space: Wave Functions and Their Densities

Hilbert space combines the properties of two different types of mathematical spaces: vector space and metric space. While the vector-space aspects are widely used, the metric-space aspects are much less exploited. Here we show that a suitable metric stratifies Fock space into concentric spheres on which maximum and minimum distances between states can be defined and geometrically interpreted. Unlike the usual Hilbert-space analysis, our results apply also to the reduced space of only ground states and to that of particle densities, which are metric, but not Hilbert, spaces. The Hohenberg-Kohn mapping between densities and ground states, which is highly complex and nonlocal in coordinate description, is found, for three different model systems, to be simple in metric space, where it becomes a monotonic and nearly linear mapping of vicinities onto vicinities.

Hubbard model as an approximation to the entanglement in nanostructures

We investigate how well the one-dimensional Hubbard model describes the entanglement of particles trapped in a string of quantum wells. We calculate the average single-site entanglement for two particles interacting via a contact interaction and consider the effect of varying the interaction strength and the interwell distance. We compare the results with the ones obtained within the one-dimensional Hubbard model with on-site interaction. We suggest an upper bound for the average single-site entanglement for two electrons in M wells and discuss analytical limits for very large repulsive and attractive interactions. We investigate how the interplay between interaction and potential shape in the quantum-well system dictates the position and size of the entanglement maxima and the agreement with the theoretical limits. Finally, we calculate the spatial entanglement for the quantum-well system and compare it to its average single-site entanglement.