Global Hybrid Multiconfiguration Pair-Density Functional Theory.

A global hybrid extension of multiconfiguration pair-density functional theory (MC-PDFT) is developed. Using a linear decomposition of the electron-electron repulsion term, a fraction λ of the nonlocal exchange interaction, obtained from variational two-electron reduced-density matrix (v2RDM)-driven complete active-space self-consistent field (CASSCF) theory, is combined with its local counterpart, obtained from an on-top pair-density functional. The resulting scheme (called λ-MC-PDFT) inherits the benefits of MC-PDFT (e.g., its simplicity and the resolution of the symmetry dilemma) and, when combined with the v2RDM approach to CASSCF, requires only polynomially scaling computational effort. As a result, λ-MC-PDFT can efficiently describe static and dynamical correlation effects in strongly correlated systems. The efficacy of the approach is assessed for several challenging multiconfigurational problems, including the dissociation of molecular nitrogen, the double dissociation of a water molecule, and the 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions of ozone to ethylene and ozone to acetylene in the O3ADD6 benchmark set.

Kinetic-energy-based error quantification in Kohn-Sham density functional theory.

We present a basis-independent metric to assess the quality of the electron density obtained from Kohn-Sham (KS) density functional theory (DFT). Given an exact reference density, Levy's constrained search (CS) formalism yields the exact non-interacting kinetic energy. The difference between this value and the kinetic energy obtained from a KSDFT procedure employing an approximate density functional serves as a measure of the density-driven error in the KS solution, which complements other error analyses based solely on the density. The CS also has the nice feature that it provides an estimate of the exact kinetic correlation energy as a byproduct of the procedure.

Heterogeneous CPU + GPU Algorithm for Variational Two-Electron Reduced-Density Matrix-Driven Complete Active-Space Self-Consistent Field Theory.

We present a heterogeneous central processing unit (CPU) + graphical processing unit (GPU) algorithm for the direct variational optimization of the two-electron reduced-density matrix (2RDM) under two-particle N-representability conditions. This variational 2RDM (v2RDM) approach is the driver for a polynomially scaling approximation to configuration-interaction-driven complete active-space self-consistent field (CASSCF) theory. For v2RDM-based CASSCF computations involving an active space consisting of 50 electrons in 50 orbitals, we observe a speedup of a factor of 3.7 when the code is executed on a combination of an NVIDIA TITAN V GPU and an Intel Core i7-6850k CPU, relative to the case when the code is executed on the CPU alone. We use this GPU-accelerated v2RDM-CASSCF algorithm to explore the electronic structure of the 3,k-circumacene and 3,k-periacene series (k = 2-7) and compare indicators of polyradical character in the lowest-energy singlet states to those observed for oligoacene molecules. The singlet states in larger circumacene and periacene molecules display the same polyradical characteristics observed in oligoacenes, with the onset of this behavior occurring at smallest k for periacenes, followed by the circumacenes and then the oligoacenes. However, the unpaired electron density that accumulates along the zigzag edge of the circumacenes is slightly less than that which accumulates in the oligoacenes, while periacenes clearly exhibit the greatest buildup of unpaired electron density in this region.

Combining Pair-Density Functional Theory and Variational Two-Electron Reduced-Density Matrix Methods.

Complete active space self-consistent field (CASSCF) computations can be realized at polynomial cost via the variational optimization of the active-space two-electron reduced-density matrix (2-RDM). Like conventional approaches to CASSCF, variational 2-RDM (v2RDM) driven CASSCF captures nondynamical electron correlation in the active space, but it lacks a description of the remaining dynamical correlation effects. Such effects can be modeled through a combination of v2RDM-CASSCF and on-top pair-density functional theory (PDFT). The resulting v2RDM-CASSCF-PDFT approach provides a computationally inexpensive framework for describing both static and dynamical correlation effects in multiconfigurational and strongly correlated systems. On-top pair-density functionals can be derived from familiar Kohn-Sham exchange-correlation (XC) density functionals through the translation of the v2RDM-CASSCF reference densities [ Li Manni et al. J. Chem. Theory Comput. 2014 , 10 , 3669 - 3680 ]. Translated and fully translated on-top PDFT versions of several common XC functionals are applied to the potential energy curves of N2, H2O, and CN-, as well as to the singlet/triplet energy splittings in the linear polyacene series. Using v2RDM-CASSCF-PDFT and the translated PBE functional, the singlet/triplet energy splitting of an infinitely long acene molecule is estimated to be 4.87 kcal mol-1.