arXiv subjects

Neil Qiang Su

Publications and source records attributed to Neil Qiang Su.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Reduced Density Matrix Functional Theory Across Molecules and Periodic Systems: Screening and Coupled Optimization

Reduced density matrix functional theory (RDMFT) provides a rigorous framework for treating strong electron correlation, yet its application to periodic systems has long been hindered by two fundamental challenges: the lack of transferable approximate functionals and the poor efficiency of orbital-occupation optimization. Here we show that these two longstanding obstacles can be overcome simultaneously. We develop a periodic implementation of RDMFT based on a coupled optimization framework that enables the efficient simultaneous optimization of natural orbitals and occupation numbers under periodic boundary conditions. Using this implementation, we demonstrate that physically motivated short-range screening transforms the Power functional into a transferable functional applicable to both molecules and periodic solids. Remarkably, short-range screening is found to play a dual role: besides substantially improving energetic accuracy, it fundamentally reshapes the optimization landscape, producing robust optimization step sizes and dramatically accelerating convergence. The coupled optimization framework consistently requires substantially fewer optimization iterations than conventional decoupled optimization for periodic calculations, while the screened $\omega$P22 functional outperforms semilocal and hybrid density functionals in predicting representative surface reaction barriers. These results establish a computationally efficient periodic RDMFT framework and identify short-range screening as a promising design principle for developing transferable one-body reduced-density-matrix functionals.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2025

Derivation of Hierarchically Correlated Orbital Functional Theory: The Role of Hypercomplex Orbitals

This work presents a detailed mathematical derivation of the hierarchically correlated orbital functional theory (HCOFT), a framework based on hypercomplex orbitals. Recent study [Phys. Rev. Lett. 133, 206402] has demonstrated that hypercomplex orbitals in a determinant are equivalent to a set of real-valued orbitals that allow fractional occupations, making them desirable fundamental descriptors for many-electron systems. The algebraic properties of Clifford algebra are rigorously applied to derive key quantities within HCOFT, addressing the complexities introduced by the hypercomplex representation. It is shown that, despite this added complexity, the resulting density and kinetic energy remain physically meaningful and satisfy essential properties, including the Pauli exclusion principle. To establish the uniqueness of HCOFT, alternative definitions of hypercomplex orbitals within Clifford algebra are explored. These alternatives can lead to the loss of physical meaning in fundamental quantities for many-electron systems. Overall, this work demonstrates that HCOFT not only preserves the desired physical properties but also provides a single-determinant framework capable of describing multi-reference systems.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2024

Enhancing Reduced Density Matrix Functional Theory Calculations by Coupling Orbital and Occupation Optimizations

Reduced density matrix functional theory (RDMFT) calculations are usually implemented in a decoupled manner, where the orbital and occupation optimizations are repeated alternately. Typically, orbital updates are performed using the unitary optimization method, while occupations are optimized through the explicit-by-implicit (EBI) method. The EBI method addresses explicit constraints by incorporating implicit functions, effectively transforming constrained optimization scenarios into unconstrained minimizations. Although the unitary and EBI methods individually achieve robust performance in optimizing orbitals and occupations, respectively, the decoupled optimization methods often suffer from slow convergence and require dozens of alternations between the orbital and occupation optimizations. To address this issue, this work proposes a coupled optimization method that combines unitary and EBI optimizations to update orbitals and occupations simultaneously at each step. To achieve favorable convergence in coupled optimization using a simple first-order algorithm, an effective and efficient preconditioner and line search are further introduced. The superiority of the new method is demonstrated through numerous tests on different molecules, random initial guesses, different basis sets and different functionals. It outperforms all decoupled optimization methods in terms of convergence speed, convergence results and convergence stability. Even a large system like $\mathrm{C_{60}}$ can converge to $10^{-8}$ au in 154 iterations, which shows that the coupled optimization method can make RDMFT more practical and facilitate its wider application and further development.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2024

Rigorous Formalization of Orbital Functionals: Addressing the Noninteracting $v$-Representability Problem

Functionals that explicitly depend on occupied, unoccupied, or fractionally-occupied orbitals are rigorously formalized using Clifford algebras, and a variational principle is established that facilitates orbital (and occupation) optimization as a formal implementation method. Theoretically, these methodologies circumvent the limitations encountered in the original Kohn-Sham and related methods, particularly when the interacting system's electron density does not match that of any noninteracting reference system. This work redefines orbital (and occupation) functionals from a novel perspective, positioning them not merely as extensions of traditional density functionals, but as superior, rigorous alternatives.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Combining Localized Orbital Scaling Correction and Bethe-Salpeter Equation for Accurate Excitation Energies

We applied localized orbital scaling correction (LOSC) in Bethe-Salpeter equation (BSE) to predict accurate excitation energies for molecules. LOSC systematically eliminates the delocalization error in the density functional approximation and is capable of approximating quasiparticle (QP) energies with accuracy similar or better than the $GW$ Green's function approach and with much less computational cost. The QP energies from LOSC instead of commonly used $G_{0}W_{0}$ and ev$GW$ are directly used in BSE. We show that the BSE/LOSC approach greatly outperforms the commonly used BSE/$G_{0}W_{0}$ approach for predicting excitations with different characters. For the calculations for Truhlar-Gagliardi test set containing valence, charge transfer (CT) and Rydberg excitations, BSE/LOSC with the Tamm-Dancoff approximation provides a comparable accuracy to time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) and BSE/ev$GW$. For the calculations of Stein CT test set and Rydberg excitations of atoms, BSE/LOSC considerably outperforms both BSE/$G_{0}W_{0}$ and TDDFT approaches with a reduced starting point dependence. BSE/LOSC is thus a promising and efficient approach to calculate excitation energies for molecular systems.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2022

Localized orbital scaling correction for periodic systems

Density functional theory offers accurate structure prediction at acceptable computational cost, but commonly used approximations suffer from delocalization error; this results in inaccurate predictions of quantities such as energy band gaps of finite and bulk systems, energy level alignments, and electron distributions at interfaces. The localized orbital scaling correction (LOSC) was developed to correct delocalization error by using orbitals localized in space and energy. These localized orbitals span both the occupied and unoccupied spaces and can have fractional occupations in order to correct both the total energy and the one-electron energy eigenvalues. We extend the LOSC method to periodic systems, in which the localized orbitals employed are dually localized Wannier functions. In light of the effect of the bulk environment on the electrostatic interaction between localized orbitals, we modify the LOSC energy correction to include a screened Coulomb kernel. For a test set of semiconductors and large-gap insulators, we show that the screened LOSC (sLOSC) method consistently improves the band gap compared to the parent density functional approximation.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2022

Approximate Functionals in Hypercomplex Kohn-Sham Theory

The recently developed hypercomplex Kohn-Sham (HCKS) theory shows great potential to overcome the static/strong correlation issue in density functional theory (DFT), which highlights the necessity of further exploration of the HCKS theory toward better handling many-electron problem. This work mainly focuses on approximate functionals in HCKS, seeking to gain more insights into functional development from the comparison between Kohn-Sham (KS) DFT and HCKS. Unlike KS-DFT, HCKS can handle different correlation effects by resorting to a set of auxiliary orbitals with dynamically varying fractional occupations. These orbitals of hierarchical correlation (HCOs) thus contain distinct electronic information for better considering the exchange-correlation effect in HCKS. The test on the triplet-singlet gaps shows that HCKS has much better performance as compared to KS-DFT in use of the same functionals, and the systematic errors of semi-local functionals can be effectively reduced by including appropriate amount of the HCO-dependent Hartree-Fock (HF) exchange. In contrast, KS-DFT shows large systematic errors, which are hardly reduced by the functionals tested in this work. Therefore, HCKS creates new channels to address to the strong correlation issue, and further development of functionals that depend on HCOs and their occupations is necessary for the treatment of strongly correlated systems.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2022

Wannier Functions Dually Localized in Space and Energy

The construction of Wannier functions from Bloch orbitals offers a unitary freedom that can be exploited to yield Wannier functions with advantageous properties. Minimizing the spatial variance is a well-known choice; another, previously proposed for Wannier functions constructed from the occupied Bloch manifold, minimizes a weighted sum of spatial and energy variance. Departing from all previous work, we extend dual localization to include both valence and conduction bands together. Near the Fermi energy, these dually localized Wannier functions yield frontier (bonding and antibonding) orbitals in bulk silicon and molecular ethylene, as well as $d$-orbital character in metallic copper. Because they are both localized and retain information about the orbital energy spectrum, dually localized Wannier functions are well suited to orbital-dependent methods that associate Wannier functions with specific energy ranges. They naturally induce fractional occupations, allowing for corrections to the DFA total energy.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2021

LibSC: Library for Scaling Correction Methods in Density Functional Theory

In recent years, a series of scaling correction (SC) methods have been developed in the Yang laboratory to reduce and eliminate the delocalization error, which is an intrinsic and systematic error existing in conventional density functional approximations (DFAs) within density functional theory (DFT). Based on extensive numerical results, the SC methods have been demonstrated to be capable of reducing the delocalization error effectively and producing accurate descriptions for many critical and challenging problems, including the fundamental gap, photoemission spectroscopy, charge transfer excitations and polarizability. In the development of SC methods, the SC methods were mainly implemented in the QM4D package that was developed in the Yang laboratory for research development. The heavy dependency on the QM4D package hinders the SC methods from access by researchers for broad applications. In this work, we developed a reliable and efficient implementation , LibSC for the global scaling correction (GSC) method and the localized orbital scaling correction (LOSC) method. LibSC will serve as a light-weight and open-source library that can be easily accessed by the quantum chemistry community. The implementation of LibSC is carefully modularized to provide the essential functionalities for conducting calculations of the SC methods. In addition, LibSC provides simple and consistent interfaces to support multiple popular programing languages, including C, C++ and Python. In addition to the development of the library, we also integrated LibSC with two popular and open-source quantum chemistry packages, the Psi4 package and the PySCF package, which provides immediate access for general users to perform calculations with SC methods.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2021

Unity of Kohn-Sham Density Functional Theory and Reduced Density Matrix Functional Theory

This work presents a theory to unify the two independent theoretical frameworks of Kohn-Sham (KS) density functional theory (DFT) and reduced density matrix functional theory (RDMFT). The generalization of the KS orbitals to hypercomplex number systems leads to the hypercomplex KS (HCKS) theory, which extends the search space for the density in KS-DFT to a space that is equivalent to natural spin orbitals with fractional occupations in RDMFT. Thereby, HCKS is able to capture the multi-reference nature of strong correlation by dynamically varying fractional occupations. Moreover, the potential of HCKS to overcome the fundamental limitations of KS is verified on systems with strong correlation, including atoms of transition metals. As a promising alternative to the realization of DFT, HCKS opens up new possibilities for the development and application of DFT in the future.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2018

Approximating Quasiparticle and Excitation Energies from Ground State Generalized Kohn-Sham Calculations

Quasiparticle energies and fundamental band gaps in particular are critical properties of molecules and materials. It was rigorously established that the generalized Kohn-Sham HOMO and LUMO orbital energies are the chemical potentials of electron removal and addition and thus good approximations to band edges and fundamental gaps from a density functional approximation (DFA) with minimal delocalization error. For other quasiparticle energies, their connection to the generalized Kohn-Sham orbital energies has not been established but remains highly interesting. We provide the comparison of experimental quasiparticle energies for many finite systems with calculations from the GW Green's function and localized orbitals scaling correction (LOSC), a recently developed correction to semilocal DFAs, which has minimal delocalization error. Extensive results with over forty systems clearly show that LOSC orbital energies achieve slightly better accuracy than the GW calculations with little dependence on the semilocal DFA, supporting the use of LOSC DFA orbital energies to predict quasiparticle energies. This also leads to the calculations of excitation energies of the $N$-electron systems from the ground state DFA calculations of the $\left(N-1\right)$-electron systems. Results show good performance with accuracy similar to TDDFT and the delta SCF approach for valence excitations with commonly used DFAs with or without LOSC. For Rydberg states, good accuracy was obtained only with the use of LOSC DFA. This work highlights the pathway to quasiparticle and excitation energies from ground density functional calculations.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2017

Localized Orbital Scaling Correction for Systematic Elimination of Delocalization Error in Density Functional Approximations

The delocalization error of popular density functional approximations (DFAs) leads to diversified problems in present-day density functional theory calculations. For achieving a universal elimination of delocalization error, we develop a localized orbital scaling correction (LOSC) framework, which unifies our previously proposed global and local scaling approaches. The LOSC framework accurately characterizes the distributions of global and local fractional electrons, and is thus capable of correcting system energy, energy derivative and electron density in a self-consistent and size-consistent manner. The LOSC-DFAs lead to systematically improved results, including the dissociation of cationic species, the band gaps of molecules and polymer chains, the energy and density changes upon electron addition and removal, and photoemission spectra.

physics.chem-ph↗