Janus Juul Eriksen

The Dalton quantum chemistry program system

Dalton is a powerful general‐purpose program system for the study of molecular electronic structure at the Hartree–Fock, Kohn–Sham, multiconfigurational self‐consistent‐field, Møller–Plesset, configuration‐interaction, and coupled‐cluster levels of theory. Apart from the total energy, a wide variety of molecular properties may be calculated using these electronic‐structure models. Molecular gradients and Hessians are available for geometry optimizations, molecular dynamics, and vibrational studies, whereas magnetic resonance and optical activity can be studied in a gauge‐origin‐invariant manner. Frequency‐dependent molecular properties can be calculated using linear, quadratic, and cubic response theory. A large number of singlet and triplet perturbation operators are available for the study of one‐, two‐, and three‐photon processes. Environmental effects may be included using various dielectric‐medium and quantum‐mechanics/molecular‐mechanics models. Large molecules may be studied using linear‐scaling and massively parallel algorithms. Dalton is distributed at no cost from http://www.daltonprogram.org for a number of UNIX platforms.

Failures of TDDFT in describing the lowest intramolecular charge-transfer excitation in para-nitroaniline

We investigate the failure of time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) with the CAM-B3LYP exchange-correlation (xc) functional coupled to the polarisable embedding (PE) scheme (PE-CAM-B3LYP) in reproducing the solvatochromic shift of the lowest intense charge-transfer excitation in para-nitroaniline (pNA) in water by comparing with results obtained with the coupled cluster singles and doubles (CCSD) model also coupled to the polarisable embedding scheme (PE-CCSD). We determine the amount of charge separation in the ground and excited charge-transfer state with both methods by calculating the electric dipole moments in the gas phase and for 100 solvent configurations. We find that CAM-B3LYP overestimates the amount of charge separation inherent in the ground state and TDDFT/CAM-B3LYP drastically underestimates this amount in the excited charge-transfer state. As the errors in the solvatochromatic shift are found to be inverse proportional to the change in dipole moment upon excitation, we conclude that the flaws in the description of the solvatochromic shift of this excitation are related to TDDFT itself and how it responds to the solvent effects modelled by the PE scheme. We recommend therefore to benchmark results of TDDFT calculations with CAM-B3LYP for intramolecular charge-transfer excitations in molecular systems similar to pNA against higher level ab initio wave function methods, like, e.g. CCSD, prior to their use. Using the calculated change in dipole moment upon excitation as a measure for charge-transfer character, we furthermore confirm that the difference between excitation energies calculated with TDDFT and with the Tamm–Dancoff approximation (TDA) to TDDFT is indeed correlated with the charge-transfer character of a given electronic transition both in vacuo and in solution. This is supported by a corresponding correlation between the change in dipole moment and the size of the Λ index diagnostic for the investigated CT excitation.

Linear-Scaling Coupled Cluster with Perturbative Triple Excitations: The Divide–Expand–Consolidate CCSD(T) Model

We propose a reformulation of the traditional (T) triples correction to the coupled cluster singles and doubles (CCSD) energy in terms of local Hartree-Fock (HF) orbitals such that its structural form aligns with our recently developed linear-scaling divide-expand-consolidate (DEC) coupled cluster family of local correlation methods. In a DEC-CCSD(T) calculation, a basis of local occupied and virtual HF orbitals is used to partition the correlated calculation on the full system into a number of independent atomic fragment and pair fragment calculations, each performed within a truncated set of the complete orbital space. In return, this leads to a massively parallel algorithm for the evaluation of the DEC-CCSD(T) correlation energy, which formally scales linearly with the size of the full system and has a tunable precision with respect to a conventional CCSD(T) calculation via a single energy-based input threshold. The theoretical developments are supported by proof of concept DEC-CCSD(T) calculations on a series of medium-sized molecular systems.

On the Importance of Excited State Dynamic Response Electron Correlation in Polarizable Embedding Methods

We investigate the effect of including a dynamic reaction field at the lowest possible ab inito wave function level of theory, namely the Hartree‐Fock (HF) self‐consistent field level within the polarizable embedding (PE) formalism. We formulate HF based PE within the linear response theory picture leading to the PE–random‐phase approximation (PE–RPA) and bridge the expressions to a second‐order polarization propagator approximation (SOPPA) frame such that dynamic reaction field contributions are included at the RPA level in addition to the static response described at the SOPPA level but with HF induced dipole moments. We conduct calculations on para‐nitro‐aniline and para‐nitro‐phenolate using said model in addition to dynamic PE–RPA and PE–CAM–B3LYP. We compare the results to recently published PE–CCSD data and demonstrate how the cost effective SOPPA‐based model successfully recovers a great portion of the inherent PE–RPA error when the observable is the solvatochromic shift. We furthermore demonstrate that whenever the change in density resulting from the ground state‐excited state electronic transition in the solute is not associated with a significant change in the electric field, dynamic response contributions formulated at the HF level of theory manage to capture the majority of the system response originating from derivative densities.

Computational protocols for prediction of solute NMR relative chemical shifts. A case study of L‐tryptophan in aqueous solution

In this study, we have applied two different spanning protocols for obtaining the molecular conformations of L‐tryptophan in aqueous solution, namely a molecular dynamics simulation and a molecular mechanics conformational search with subsequent geometry re‐optimization of the stable conformers using a quantum mechanically based method. These spanning protocols represent standard ways of obtaining a set of conformations on which NMR calculations may be performed. The results stemming from the solute–solvent configurations extracted from the MD simulation at 300 K are found to be inferior to the results stemming from the conformations extracted from the MM conformational search in terms of replicating an experimental reference as well as in achieving the correct sequence of the NMR relative chemical shifts of L‐tryptophan in aqueous solution. We find this to be due to missing conformations visited during the molecular dynamics run as well as inaccuracies in geometrical parameters generated from the classical molecular dynamics simulations.

A Lagrangian framework for deriving triples and quadruples corrections to the CCSD energy

Using the coupled cluster Lagrangian technique, we have determined perturbative corrections to the coupled cluster singles and doubles (CCSD) energy that converge towards the coupled cluster singles, doubles, and triples (CCSDT) and coupled cluster singles, doubles, triples, and quadruples (CCSDTQ) energies, considering the CCSD state as the unperturbed reference state and the fluctuation potential as the perturbation. Since the Lagrangian technique is utilized, the energy corrections satisfy Wigners 2n + 1 rule for the cluster amplitudes and the 2n + 2 rule for the Lagrange multipliers. The energy corrections define the CCSD perturbation series, CCSD(T-n) and CCSD(TQ-n), which are term-wise size extensive to any order in the perturbation. A detailed comparison of the CCSD(TQ-n) series and the CC(2)PT(n) series of Hirata et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 114, 3919 (2001)] has been performed, revealing some deficiencies of the latter related to the target energy of the series and its lack of size extensivity.

Equation-of-motion coupled cluster perturbation theory revisited

The equation-of-motion coupled cluster (EOM-CC) framework has been used for deriving a novel series of perturbative corrections to the coupled cluster singles and doubles energy that formally converges towards the full configuration interaction energy limit. The series is based on a Møller-Plesset partitioning of the Hamiltonian and thus size extensive at any order in the perturbation, thereby remedying the major deficiency inherent to previous perturbation series based on the EOM-CC ansatz.

Assessment of the accuracy of coupled cluster perturbation theory for open-shell systems. II. Quadruples expansions.

The accuracy at which total energies of open-shell atoms and organic radicals may be calculated is assessed for selected coupled cluster perturbative triples expansions, all of which augment the coupled cluster singles and doubles (CCSD) energy by a non-iterative correction for the effect of triple excitations. Namely, the second- through sixth-order models of the recently proposed CCSD(T-n) triples series [J. J. Eriksen et al., J. Chem. Phys. 140, 064108 (2014)] are compared to the acclaimed CCSD(T) model for both unrestricted as well as restricted open-shell Hartree-Fock (UHF/ROHF) reference determinants. By comparing UHF- and ROHF-based statistical results for a test set of 18 modest-sized open-shell species with comparable RHF-based results, no behavioral differences are observed for the higher-order models of the CCSD(T-n) series in their correlated descriptions of closed- and open-shell species. In particular, we find that the convergence rate throughout the series towards the coupled cluster singles, doubles, and triples (CCSDT) solution is identical for the two cases. For the CCSD(T) model, on the other hand, not only its numerical consistency, but also its established, yet fortuitous cancellation of errors breaks down in the transition from closed- to open-shell systems. The higher-order CCSD(T-n) models (orders n > 3) thus offer a consistent and significant improvement in accuracy relative to CCSDT over the CCSD(T) model, equally for RHF, UHF, and ROHF reference determinants, albeit at an increased computational cost.

The same number of optimized parameters scheme for determining intermolecular interaction energies

We propose the Same Number Of Optimized Parameters (SNOOP) scheme as an alternative to the counterpoise method for treating basis set superposition errors in calculations of intermolecular interaction energies. The key point of the SNOOP scheme is to enforce that the number of optimized wave function parameters for the noninteracting system is the same as for the interacting system. This ensures a delicate balance between the quality of the monomer and dimer finite basis set calculations. We compare the SNOOP scheme to the uncorrected and counterpoise schemes theoretically as well as numerically. Numerical results for second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2) and coupled-cluster with single, double, and approximate triple excitations (CCSD(T)) show that the SNOOP scheme in general outperforms the uncorrected and counterpoise approaches. Furthermore, we show that SNOOP interaction energies calculated using a given basis set are of similar quality as those determined by basis set extrapolation of counterpoise-corrected results obtained at a similar computational cost.

On the convergence of perturbative coupled cluster triples expansions: Error cancellations in the CCSD(T) model and the importance of amplitude relaxation

Recently, we proposed a novel Lagrangian-based perturbation series-the CCSD(T-n) series-which systematically corrects the coupled cluster singles and doubles (CCSD) energy in orders of the Møller-Plesset fluctuation potential for effects due to triple excitations. In the present study, we report numerical results for the CCSD(T-n) series up through fourth order which show the predicted convergence trend throughout the series towards the energy of its target, the coupled cluster singles, doubles, and triples (CCSDT) model. Since effects due to the relaxation of the CCSD singles and doubles amplitudes enter the CCSD(T-n) series at fourth order (the CCSD(T-4) model), we are able to separate these effects from the total energy correction and thereby emphasize their crucial importance. Furthermore, we illustrate how the ΛCCSD[T]/(T) and CCSD[T]/(T) models, which in slightly different manners augment the CCSD energy by the [T] and (T) corrections rationalized from many-body perturbation theory, may be viewed as approximations to the second-order CCSD(T-2) model. From numerical comparisons with the CCSD(T-n) models, we show that the extraordinary performance of the ΛCCSD[T]/(T) and CCSD[T]/(T) models relies on fortuitous, yet rather consistent, cancellations of errors. As a side product of our investigations, we are led to reconsider the asymmetric ΛCCSD[T] model due to both its rigorous theoretical foundation and its performance, which is shown to be similar to that of the CCSD(T) model for systems at equilibrium geometry and superior to it for distorted systems. In both the calculations at equilibrium and distorted geometries, however, the ΛCCSD[T] and CCSD(T) models are shown to be outperformed by the fourth-order CCSD(T-4) model.