Péter G. Szalay

HEAT: High accuracy extrapolated ab initio thermochemistry

A theoretical model chemistry designed to achieve high accuracy for enthalpies of formation of atoms and small molecules is described. This approach is entirely independent of experimental data and contains no empirical scaling factors, and includes a treatment of electron correlation up to the full coupled-cluster singles, doubles, triples and quadruples approach. Energies are further augmented by anharmonic zero-point vibrational energies, a scalar relativistic correction, first-order spin-orbit coupling, and the diagonal Born-Oppenheimer correction. The accuracy of the approach is assessed by several means. Enthalpies of formation (at 0 K) calculated for a test suite of 31 atoms and molecules via direct calculation of the corresponding elemental formation reactions are within 1 kJ mol(-1) to experiment in all cases. Given the quite different bonding environments in the product and reactant sides of these reactions, the results strongly indicate that even greater accuracy may be expected in reactions that preserve (either exactly or approximately) the number and types of chemical bonds.

Multi-reference averaged quadratic coupled-cluster method: a size-extensive modification of multi-reference CI

Abstract An extension of the earlier multi-reference linearized coupled-cluster method to include quadratic EPV terms in an averaged way is presented. The resulting functional is conceptually similar to the averaged coupled pair functional but it offers superior performance particularly with small reference spaces. This is demonstrated on the ozone molecule using a two electron-two orbital GVB-type reference function.

Analytic evaluation of nonadiabatic coupling terms at the MR-CI level. I. Formalism

An efficient and general method for the analytic computation of the nonandiabatic coupling vector at the multireference configuration interaction (MR-CI) level is presented. This method is based on a previously developed formalism for analytic MR-CI gradients adapted to the use for the computation of nonadiabatic coupling terms. As was the case for the analytic energy gradients, very general, separate choices of invariant orbital subspaces at the multiconfiguration self-consistent field and MR-CI levels are possible, allowing flexible selections of MR-CI wave functions. The computational cost for the calculation of the nonadiabatic coupling vector at the MR-CI level is far below the cost for the energy calculation. In this paper the formalism of the method is presented and in the following paper [Dallos et al., J. Chem. Phys. 120, 7330 (2004)] applications concerning the optimization of minima on the crossing seam are described.

A general state-selective multireference coupled-cluster algorithm

A state-selective multireference coupled-cluster algorithm is presented which is capable of describing single, double (or higher) excitations from an arbitrary complete model space. One of the active space determinants is chosen as a formal Fermi-vacuum and single, double (or higher) excitations from the other reference functions are considered as higher excitations from this determinant as it has been previously proposed by Oliphant and Adamowicz [J. Chem. Phys. 94, 1229 (1991)]. Coupled-cluster equations are generated in terms of antisymmetrized diagrams and restrictions are imposed on these diagrams to eliminate those cluster amplitudes which carry undesirable number of inactive indices. The corresponding algebraic expressions are factorized and contractions between cluster amplitudes and intermediates are evaluated by our recent string-based algorithm [J. Chem. Phys. 115, 2945 (2001)]. The method can be easily modified to solve multireference configuration interaction problems. Performance of the method is demonstrated by several test calculations on systems which require a multireference description. The problem related to the choice of the Fermi-vacuum has also been investigated.

High-accuracy extrapolated ab initio thermochemistry. II. Minor improvements to the protocol and a vital simplification

The recently developed high-accuracy extrapolated ab initio thermochemistry method for theoretical thermochemistry, which is intimately related to other high-precision protocols such as the Weizmann-3 and focal-point approaches, is revisited. Some minor improvements in theoretical rigor are introduced which do not lead to any significant additional computational overhead, but are shown to have a negligible overall effect on the accuracy. In addition, the method is extended to completely treat electron correlation effects up to pentuple excitations. The use of an approximate treatment of quadruple and pentuple excitations is suggested; the former as a pragmatic approximation for standard cases and the latter when extremely high accuracy is required. For a test suite of molecules that have rather precisely known enthalpies of formation {as taken from the active thermochemical tables of Ruscic and co-workers [Lecture Notes in Computer Science, edited by M. Parashar (Springer, Berlin, 2002), Vol. 2536, pp. 25-38; J. Phys. Chem. A 108, 9979 (2004)]}, the largest deviations between theory and experiment are 0.52, -0.70, and 0.51 kJ mol(-1) for the latter three methods, respectively. Some perspective is provided on this level of accuracy, and sources of remaining systematic deficiencies in the approaches are discussed.

IUPAC Critical Evaluation of Thermochemical Properties of Selected Radicals. Part I

This is the first part of a series of articles reporting critically evaluated thermochemical properties of selected free radicals. The present article contains datasheets for 11 radicals: CH, CH2(triplet), CH2(singlet), CH3, CH2OH, CH3O, CH3CO, C2H5O, C6H5CH2, OH, and NH2. The thermochemical properties discussed are the enthalpy of formation, as well as the heat capacity, integrated heat capacity, and entropy of the radicals. One distinguishing feature of the present evaluation is the systematic utilization of available kinetic, spectroscopic and ion thermochemical data as well as high-level theoretical results.

Approximately extensive modifications of the multireference configuration interaction method: A theoretical and practical analysis

The extensivity error of configuration interaction (CI) is well understood and unlinked diagram corrections must be applied to get reliable results. Besides the well known a posteriori Davidson‐type corrections, several methods attempt to modify the CI equations a priori to obtain nearly extensive results, while retaining the convenience of working in a configuration space. Such unlinked diagram corrections are particularly important for multireference cases for which coupled‐cluster (CC) calculations, which require a many‐body, integral‐based calculation, are more difficult. Several such multireference methods have been presented recently, ranging from the multireference linearized coupled cluster method (MR‐LCCM), averaged coupled pair functional (MR‐ACPF), through various quasidegenerate variational perturbation theory (QD‐VPT), MR‐coupled electron pair method (MR‐CEPA) to size‐consistent, self‐consistent, selected CI [(SC)2SCI]. We analyze all of these methods theoretically and numerically, paying par...

Analytic evaluation of nonadiabatic coupling terms at the MR-CI level. II. Minima on the crossing seam: Formaldehyde and the photodimerization of ethylene

The method for the analytic calculation of the nonadiabatic coupling vector at the multireference configuration-interaction (MR-CI) level and its program implementation into the COLUMBUS program system described in the preceding paper [Lischka et al., J. Chem. Phys. 120, 7322 (2004)] has been combined with automatic searches for minima on the crossing seam (MXS). Based on a perturbative description of the vicinity of a conical intersection, a Lagrange formalism for the determination of MXS has been derived. Geometry optimization by direct inversion in the iterative subspace extrapolation is used to improve the convergence properties of the corresponding Newton-Raphson procedure. Three examples have been investigated: the crossing between the 1(1)B1/2(1)A1 valence states in formaldehyde, the crossing between the 2(1)A1/3(1)A1 pi-pi* valence and ny-3py Rydberg states in formaldehyde, and three crossings in the case of the photodimerization of ethylene. The methods developed allow MXS searches of significantly larger systems at the MR-CI level than have been possible before and significantly more accurate calculations as compared to previous complete-active space self-consistent field approaches.

A general multireference configuration interaction gradient program

An efficient and general method for the computation of analytic energy gradients and energy response properties for general MRCI (multireference configuration interaction) and ACPF (averaged coupled pair functional) wave functions is presented. This methodology includes a general approach, based on successive orbital transformations, for the inclusion of the effects of various orbital resolution (canonicalization) constraints. Initial implementation in the columbus Program System demonstrates, particularly for large‐scale multireference wave functions, that the additional computational effort required for the energy gradient is a small fraction of that required for the energy. For polyatomic molecules, the computational resources required for the energy gradient do not depend explicitly on the number of constituent atoms. This combination of features represents a major step forward in the computation and characterization of molecular potential energy surfaces.

Analytic calculation of the diagonal Born-Oppenheimer correction within configuration-interaction and coupled-cluster theory

Schemes for the analytic calculation of the diagonal Born-Oppenheimer correction (DBOC) are formulated and implemented for use with general single-reference configuration-interaction and coupled-cluster wave function models. Calculations are reported to demonstrate the convergence of the DBOC with respect to electron-correlation treatment and basis set as well as to investigate the size-consistency error in configuration-interaction calculations of the DBOC. The importance of electron-correlation contributions to the DBOC is illustrated in the computation of the corresponding corrections for the reaction energy and activation barrier of the F + H2 --> FH + H reaction as well as of the atomization energy for trans-butadiene.