arXiv subjects

Bastien Mussard

Publications and source records attributed to Bastien Mussard.

18 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2020

Recent developments in the PySCF program package

PYSCF is a Python-based general-purpose electronic structure platform that both supports first-principles simulations of molecules and solids, as well as accelerates the development of new methodology and complex computational workflows. The present paper explains the design and philosophy behind PYSCF that enables it to meet these twin objectives. With several case studies, we show how users can easily implement their own methods using PYSCF as a development environment. We then summarize the capabilities of PYSCF for molecular and solid-state simulations. Finally, we describe the growing ecosystem of projects that use PYSCF across the domains of quantum chemistry, materials science, machine learning and quantum information science.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2019

Self-consistent range-separated density-functional theory with second-order perturbative correction via the optimized-effective-potential method

We extend the range-separated double-hybrid RSH+MP2 method [J. G. Angyan et al., Phys. Rev. A 72, 012510 (2005)], combining long-range HF exchange and MP2 correlation with a short-range density functional, to a fully self-consistent version using the optimized-effective-potential technique in which the orbitals are obtained from a local potential including the long-range HF and MP2 contributions. We test this approach, that we name RS-OEP2, on a set of small closed-shell atoms and molecules. For the commonly used value of the range-separation parameter $μ=0.5$ bohr$^{-1}$, we find that self-consistency does not seem to bring any improvement for total energies, ionization potentials, and electronic affinities. However, contrary to the non-self-consistent RSH+MP2 method, the present RS-OEP2 method gives a LUMO energy which physically corresponds to a neutral excitation energy and gives local exchange-correlation potentials which are reasonably good approximations to the corresponding Kohn-Sham quantities. At a finer scale, we find that RS-OEP2 gives largely inaccurate correlation potentials and correlated densities, which points to the need of further improvement of this type of range-separated double hybrids.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2019

Direct comparison of many-body methods for realistic electronic Hamiltonians

A large collaboration carefully benchmarks 20 first principles many-body electronic structure methods on a test set of 7 transition metal atoms, and their ions and monoxides. Good agreement is attained between the 3 systematically converged methods, resulting in experiment-free reference values. These reference values are used to assess the accuracy of modern emerging and scalable approaches to the many-electron problem. The most accurate methods obtain energies indistinguishable from experimental results, with the agreement mainly limited by the experimental uncertainties. Comparison between methods enables a unique perspective on calculations of many-body systems of electrons.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2019

Range-separated double-hybrid density-functional theory with coupled-cluster and random-phase approximations

We construct range-separated double-hybrid schemes which combine coupled-cluster or random-phase approximations with a density functional based on a two-parameter Coulomb-attenuating-method-like decomposition of the electron-electron interaction. We find that the addition of a fraction of short-range electron-electron interaction in the wave-function part of the calculation is globally beneficial for the range-separated double-hybrid scheme involving a variant of the random-phase approximation with exchange terms. Even though the latter scheme is globally as accurate as the corresponding scheme employing only second-order M{ø}ller-Plesset perturbation theory for atomization energies, reaction barrier heights, and weak intermolecular interactions of small molecules, it is more accurate for the more complicated case of the benzene dimer in the stacked configuration. The present range-separated double-hybrid scheme employing a random-phase approximation thus represents a new member in the family of double hybrids with minimal empiricism which could be useful for general chemical applications.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2018

Random Phase Approximation in Projected Oscillator Orbitals

The projected oscillator orbitals (pOOs) are localized virtual orbitals constructed by multiplying localized occupied orbitals by harmonics. Following a recent paper by Mussard and Ángyán (Theor Chem Acc 134:1, 2015), further developments of projected oscillator orbitals are shown, notably the equations for pOOs of general order as well as their overlaps are derived. The performance of these localized virtual orbitals is demonstrated up to third order. It is found that a good fraction of the aug-cc-pVQZ RPA correlation energy is recovered by use of a smaller number of pOOs. This is especially true where considering only the long-range correlation energy, which is important for the description of London dispersion forces.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2017

One-step treatment of spin-orbit coupling and electron correlation in large active spaces

In this work we demonstrate that the heat bath configuration interaction (HCI) and its semistochastic extension can be used to treat relativistic effects and electron correlation on an equal footing in large active spaces to calculate the low energy spectrum of several systems including halogens group atoms (F, Cl, Br, I), coinage atoms (Cu, Au) and the Neptunyl(VI) dioxide radical. This work demonstrates that despite a significant increase in the size of the Hilbert space due to spin symmetry breaking by the spin-orbit coupling terms, HCI retains the ability to discard large parts of the low importance Hilbert space to deliver converged absolute and relative energies. For instance, by using just over $10^7$ determinants we get converged excitation energies for Au atom in an active space containing (150o,25e) which has over $10^{30}$ determinants. We also investigate the accuracy of five different two-component relativistic Hamiltonians in which different levels of approximations are made in deriving the one-electron and two-electrons Hamiltonians, ranging from Breit-Pauli (BP) to various flavors of exact two-component (X2C) theory. The relative accuracy of the different Hamiltonians are compared on systems that range in atomic number from first row atoms to actinides.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2017

Cheap and near exact CASSCF with large active spaces

We use the recently-developed Heat-bath Configuration Interaction (HCI) algorithm as an efficient active-space solver to perform multi-configuration self-consistent field calculations (HCISCF) with large active spaces. We give a detailed derivation of the theory and show that difficulties associated with non-variationality of the HCI procedure can be overcome by making use of the Lagrangian formulation to calculate the HCI relaxed two body reduced density matrix. HCISCF is then used to study the electronic structure of butadiene, pentacene, and Fe-porphyrin. One of the most striking results of our work is that the converged active space orbitals obtained from HCISCF are relatively insensitive to the accuracy of the HCI calculation. This allows us to obtain nearly converged CASSCF energies with an estimated error of less than 1 mHa using the orbitals obtained from the HCISCF procedure in which the integral transformation is the dominant cost. For example, an HCISCF calculation on Fe-Porphyrin model complex with an active space of (44e, 44o) took only 412 seconds per iteration on a single node containing 28 cores, out of which 185 seconds were spent in the HCI calculation and the remaining 227 seconds were mainly used for integral transformation. Finally, we also show that active-space orbitals can be optimized using HCISCF to substantially speed up the convergence of the HCI energy to the Full CI limit because HCI is not invariant to unitary transformations within the active space.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2017

Time-dependent linear-response variational Monte Carlo

We present the extension of variational Monte Carlo (VMC) to the calculation of electronic excitation energies and oscillator strengths using time-dependent linear-response theory. By exploiting the analogy existing between the linear method for wave-function optimisation and the generalised eigenvalue equation of linear-response theory, we formulate the equations of linear-response VMC (LR-VMC). This LR-VMC approach involves the first-and second-order derivatives of the wave function with respect to the parameters. We perform first tests of the LR-VMC method within the Tamm-Dancoff approximation using single-determinant Jastrow-Slater wave functions with different Slater basis sets on some singlet and triplet excitations of the beryllium atom. Comparison with reference experimental data and with configuration-interaction-singles (CIS) results shows that LR-VMC generally outperforms CIS for excitation energies and is thus a promising approach for calculating electronic excited-state properties of atoms and molecules.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2016

Self-consistent double-hybrid density-functional theory using the optimized-effective-potential method

We introduce an orbital-optimized double-hybrid (DH) scheme using the optimized-effective-potential (OEP) method. The orbitals are optimized using a local potential corresponding to the complete exchange-correlation energy expression including the second-order M{ø}ller-Plesset (MP2) correlation contribution. We have implemented a one-parameter version of this OEP-based self-consistent DH scheme using the BLYP density-functional approximation and compared it to the corresponding non-self-consistent DH scheme for calculations on a few closed-shell atoms and molecules. While the OEP-based self-consistency does not provide any improvement for the calculations of ground-state total energies and ionization potentials, it does improve the accuracy of electron affinities and restores the meaning of the LUMO orbital energy as being connected to a neutral excitation energy. Moreover, the OEP-based self-consistent DH scheme provides reasonably accurate exchange-correlation potentials and correlated densities.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2016

Fractional-charge and fractional-spin errors in range-separated density-functional theory

We investigate fractional-charge and fractional-spin errors in range-separated density-functional theory. Specifically, we consider the range-separated hybrid (RSH) method which combines long-range Hartree-Fock (HF) exchange with a short-range semilocal exchange-correlation density functional, and the RSH+MP2 method which adds long-range second-order M{ø}ller-Plesset (MP2) correlation. Results on atoms and molecules show that the fractional-charge errors obtained in RSH are much smaller than in the standard Kohn-Sham (KS) scheme applied with semilocal or hybrid approximations, and also generally smaller than in the standard HF method. The RSH+MP2 method tends to have smaller fractional-charge errors than standard MP2 for the most diffuse systems, but larger fractional-charge errors for the more compact systems. Even though the individual contributions to the fractional-spin errors in the H atom coming from the short-range exchange and correlation density-functional approximations are smaller than the corresponding contributions for the full-range exchange and correlation density-functional approximations, RSH gives fractional-spin errors that are larger than in the standard KS scheme and only slightly smaller than in standard HF. Adding long-range MP2 correlation only leads to infinite fractional-spin errors. This work clarifies the successes and limitations of range-separated density-functional theory approaches for eliminating self-interaction and static-correlation errors.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2016

Gaussian continuum basis functions for calculating high-harmonic generation spectra

We explore the computation of high-harmonic generation spectra by means of Gaussian basis sets in approaches propagating the time-dependent Schr{ö}dinger equation. We investigate the efficiency of Gaussian functions specifically designed for the description of the continuum proposed by Kaufmann et al. [J. Phys. B 22, 2223 (1989)]. We assess the range of applicability of this approach by studying the hydrogen atom, i.e. the simplest atom for which "exact" calculations on a grid can be performed. We notably study the effect of increasing the basis set cardinal number, the number of diffuse basis functions, and the number of Gaussian pseudo-continuum basis functions for various laser parameters. Our results show that the latter significantly improve the description of the low-lying continuum states, and provide a satisfactory agreement with grid calculationsfor laser wavelengths $λ$0 = 800 and 1064 nm. The Kaufmann continuum functions therefore appear as a promising way of constructing Gaussian basis sets for studying molecular electron dynamics in strong laser fields using time-dependent quantum-chemistry approaches.

physics.comp-ph↗

arXiv2016

Dielectric matrix formulation of correlation energies in the Random Phase Approximation (RPA): inclusion of exchange effects

Starting from the general expression for the ground state correlation energy in the adiabatic connection fluctuation dissipation theorem (ACFDT) framework, it is shown that the dielectric matrix formulation, which is usually applied to calculate the direct random phase approximation (dRPA) correlation energy, can be used for alternative RPA expressions including exchange effects. Within this famework, the ACFDT analog of the second order screened exchange (SOSEX) approximation leads to a logarithmic formula for the correlation energy similar to the direct RPA expression. Alternatively, the contribution of the exchange can be included in the kernel used to evaluate the response functions. In this case the use of an approximate kernel is crucial to simplify the formalism and to obtain a correlation energy in logarithmic form. Technical details of the implementation of these methods are discussed and it is shown that one can take advantage of density fitting or Cholesky decomposition techniques to improve the computational efficiency; a discussion on the numerical quadrature made on the frequency variable is also provided. A series of test calculations on atomic correlation energies and molecular reaction energies shows that exchange effects are instrumental to improve over direct RPA results.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2016

Analytical Energy Gradients in Range-Separated Hybrid Density Functional Theory with Random Phase Approximation

Analytical forces have been derived in the Lagrangian framework for several random phase approximation (RPA) correlated total energy methods based on the range separated hybrid (RSH) approach, which combines a short-range density functional approximation for the short-range exchange-correlation energy with a Hartree-Fock-type long-range exchange and RPA long-range correlation. The RPA correlation energy has been expressed as a ring coupled cluster doubles (rCCD) theory. The resulting analytical gradients have been implemented and tested for geometry optimization of simple molecules and intermolecular charge transfer complexes, where intermolecular interactions are expected to have a non-negligible effect even on geometrical parameters of the monomers.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2016

Spin-unrestricted random-phase approximation with range separation: Benchmark on atomization energies and reaction barrier heights

We consider several spin-unrestricted random-phase approximation (RPA) variants for calculating correlation energies, with and without range separation, and test them on datasets of atomization energies and reaction barrier heights. We show that range separation greatly improves the accuracy of all RPA variants for these properties. Moreover, we show that a RPA variant with exchange, hereafter referred to as RPAx-SO2, first proposed by Sz-abo and Ostlund [A. Szabo and N. S. Ostlund, J. Chem. Phys. 67, 4351 (1977)] in a spin-restricted closed-shell formalism, and extended here to a spin-unrestricted formalism , provides on average the most accurate range-separated RPA variant for atomization energies and reaction barrier heights. Since this range-separated RPAx-SO2 method had already been shown to be among the most accurate range-separated RPA variants for weak intermolecular interactions [J. Toulouse, W. Zhu, A. Savin, G. Jansen, and J. G. {Á}ngy{á}n, J. Chem. Phys. 135, 084119 (2011)], this works confirms range-separated RPAx-SO2 as a promising method for general chemical applications.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2016

Short range DFT combined with long-range local RPA within a range-separated hybrid DFT framework

Selecting excitations in localized orbitals to calculate long-range correlation contributions to range-separated density-functional theory can reduce the overall computational effort significantly. Beyond simple selection schemes of excited determinants, the dispersion-only approximation, which avoids counterpoise-corrected monomer calculations, is shown to be particularly interesting in this context, which we apply to the random-phase approximation. The approach has been tested on dimers of formamide, water, methane and benzene.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2015

Local random phase approximation with projected oscillator orbitals

An approximation to the many-body London dispersion energy in molecular systems is expressed as a functional of the occupied orbitals only. The method is based on the local-RPA theory. The occupied orbitals are localized molecular orbitals and the virtual space is described by projected oscillator orbitals, i.e. functions obtained by multiplying occupied localized orbitals with solid spherical harmonic polynomials having their origin at the orbital centroids. Since we are interested in the long-range part of the correlation energy, responsible for dispersion forces, the electron repulsion is approximated by its multipolar expansion. This procedure leads to a fully non-empirical long-range correlation energy expression. Molecular dispersion coefficients calculated from determinant wave functions obtained by a range-separated hybrid method reproduce experimental values with less than 15% error.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2015

Relationships between charge density response functions, exchange holes and localized orbitals

The charge density response function and the exchange hole are closely related to each other via the fundamental fluctuation-dissipation theorem of physics. A simple approximate model of the static response function is visually compared on several examples in order to demonstrate this relationship. This study is completed by illustrating the well-known isomorphism between the exchange hole and the square of the dominant localized orbital lying in the space region of the reference point of the exchange hole function. The implications of these relationships for the interpretation of common chemical concepts, such as delocalization, are discussed.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2015

Basis convergence of range-separated density-functional theory

Range-separated density-functional theory is an alternative approach to Kohn-Sham density-functional theory. The strategy of range-separated density-functional theory consists in separating the Coulomb electron-electron interaction into long-range and short-range components, and treating the long-range part by an explicit many-body wave-function method and the short-range part by a density-functional approximation. Among the advantages of using many-body methods for the long-range part of the electron-electron interaction is that they are much less sensitive to the one-electron atomic basis compared to the case of the standard Coulomb interaction. Here, we provide a detailed study of the basis convergence of range-separated density-functional theory. We study the convergence of the partial-wave expansion of the long-range wave function near the electron-electron coalescence. We show that the rate of convergence is exponential with respect to the maximal angular momentum L for the long-range wave function, whereas it is polynomial for the case of the Coulomb interaction. We also study the convergence of the long-range second-order M{ø}ller-Plesset correlation energy of four systems (He, Ne, N2, and H2O) with the cardinal number X of the Dunning basis sets cc-p(C)VXZ, and find that the error in the correlation energy is best fitted by an exponential in X. This leads us to propose a three-point complete-basis-set extrapolation scheme for range-separated density-functional theory based on an exponential formula.

physics.chem-ph↗