arXiv subjects

Trond Saue

Publications and source records attributed to Trond Saue.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Biquaternion Algebra with Bilinear Multiplication: A General, Elegant, and Computationally Advantageous Framework for Relativistic Electronic Structure Calculations on CPUs and GPUs

Quaternion algebra provides a natural representation of time-reversal-symmetric matrix structures in relativistic electronic-structure theory, whereas complementary time-reversal-antisymmetric structures extend this representation to complex quaternions, or biquaternions. Here, we explicitly exploit biquaternion algebra for fundamental objects, including operators, kinetically and magnetically balanced basis functions, and their expectation values, within a unified framework encompassing real, complex, and real quaternion subalgebras as special cases. To realize this framework computationally, we have developed HMATLIB, a biquaternion matrix library implemented within the ReSpect package for pure CPU and hybrid CPU/GPU execution. A key development is a bilinear algorithm for matrix-valued biquaternion multiplication that reduces the number of real matrix--matrix multiplications from 64 to 24 compared with the conventional component-wise approach, while the biquaternion representation effectively doubles the maximum accessible matrix dimension under the same 32-bit indexing constraint. Numerical benchmarks on modern CPU and GPU architectures demonstrate that the biquaternion formulation consistently outperforms its isomorphic complex-algebra counterpart. For the largest matrices reported, hybrid CPU/GPU execution accelerates bilinear matrix multiplication by approximately 5-8 times over pure CPU execution and matrix diagonalization by approximately 12 and 61 times relative to CPU oneAPI MKL and NVHPC OpenBLAS, respectively. These results establish biquaternion algebra as a general and computationally advantageous framework for modern relativistic electronic-structure calculations.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2026

Parity violation effects in helical osmocene: theoretical analysis and experimental prospects

We present a computational investigation of the parity-violating (PV) contributions to the vibrational transitions and nuclear magnetic resonance shieldings of helical osmocene. A number of promising transitions within the spectral window of currently available sub-Hz metrology-grade lasers are identified, exhibiting high intensities and parity violation shifts of up to 7 Hz. We discuss the prospects for the synthesis of this compound and for subsequent ultra-precise mid-IR spectroscopy towards the first detection of parity violation in a chiral molecule.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2026

Report on the second Toulouse Tensor Workshop

This report documents the program of the second Toulouse Tensor Workshop which took place at the University of Toulouse on September 17-19, 2025, and summarizes the main points of discussion. This workshop follows the first Workshop (CECAM workshop on Tensor Contraction Library Standardization), which took place in Toulouse one year earlier, on May 24-25, 2024 and led to the formation of a tensor standardization working group, which has since specified a low-level standard interface for tensor operations available freely on GitHub. The 2025 workshop brought together developers of applications which rely extensively on tensor computations such as quantum many-body simulations in chemistry and physics (material science and electronic structure calculations), as well as developers and experts of tensor software who have the know-how to provide the technical support for such applications. The workshop enabled the community to provide feedback on the specified low-level interface and how it can be further refined. It also initiated a discussion on how the standardization efforts should be oriented in the near feature, in particular on what should be higher-level interfaces and how to tackle other requirements of the community such as tensor decompositions, symmetric tensors and structured sparsity support.

cs.MS↗

arXiv2026

The nuclear electric quadrupole moment of $^{87}$Sr from highly accurate molecular relativistic calculations

The nuclear electric quadrupole moment (NQM) of $^{87}$Sr has recently been revisited using high-precision relativistic atomic calculations [B. Lu et al., Phys. Rev. A 100, 012504 (2019)], indicating that the currently accepted value should be revised and that their result may serve as a new reference. In the present work, we determine the NQM of $^{87}$Sr from the molecular method, by combining the experimentally measured nuclear quadrupole coupling constants (NQCCs) of SrO and SrS with highly accurate relativistic calculations of the electric field gradient (EFG) at the Sr nucleus. Electronic correlation is treated at the CCSD(T), CCSD-T and CCSD$\tilde{\text{T}}$ levels. The iterative T contribution of the latter, composite scheme was obtained using a newly implemented parallel scheme where the distributed memory tensor library Cyclops Tensor Framework (CTF) was made available to the DIRAC code for relativistic molecular calculations through TAPP, the new community standard for tensor operations. All correlated calculations are performed using the exact two-component molecular mean-field Hamiltonian (X2C$\mathrm{mmf}$). The Gaunt two-electron interaction is incorporated, an even-tempered optimized quadruple-$\zeta$ quality basis set is employed, and vibrational corrections are accounted for. Our best result is $Q($$^{87}$Sr$) = 0.33666 \pm 0.00258$ b, which is about 10% larger than currently accepted standard value, while it is in excellent agreement with recent determinations [Y.-B. Tang, arXiv:2512.07603 [physics.atom-ph] (2025)].

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2025

Wichmann-Kroll vacuum polarization density in a finite Gaussian basis set

This work further develops the calculation of QED effects in a finite Gaussian basis. We focus on the non-linear ${\alpha}(Z{\alpha})^{n\ge 3}$ contribution to the vacuum polarization density, computing the energy shift of 1s$_{1/2}$ states of hydrogen-like ions. Our goal is to improve the numerical computations to achieve a precision comparable to that of Green's function methods reported in the literature. To do so, an analytic expression for the linear contribution to the vacuum polarization density is derived using Riesz projectors. Alternative formulations of the vacuum polarization density and their relation is discussed. The convergence of the finite Gaussian basis scheme is investigated, and the numerical difficulties that arise are characterized. In particular, an error analysis is performed to assess the method's robustness to numerical noise. We then report a strategy for computing the energy shift with sufficient precision to enable a sensible extrapolation of the partial-wave expansion. A key feature of the procedure is the use of even-tempered basis sets, allowing for an extrapolation towards the complete basis set limit.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Does chemistry need more physics ?

In this mini-review I look into the physics underlying the theory of electronic structure of atoms and molecules. Quantum mechanics is needed to understand the structure of the periodic table. Special relativity is indispensable for a correct description of the chemistry of the heavy elements. With increased accuracy of quantum chemical calculations, it is natural to ask if chemistry needs more physics.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2025

Highly Accurate Expectation Values Using High-Order Relativistic Coupled Cluster Theory

This work presents the automatic generation of analytic first derivatives of the energy for general coupled-cluster models using the \text{tenpi} toolchain. We report the first implementation of expectation values for CCSDT and CCSDTQ methods within the DIRAC program package for relativistic molecular calculations. As pivotal calculations, we focus on the electric field gradient (EFG) evaluated at the lithium nucleus in LiX (X = H, F, Cl) compounds, enabling the extraction of the nuclear electric quadrupole moment $Q({}^{7}Li)$, and at the aluminum nucleus in AlY (Y =H, F, Cl, Br) compounds, for the determination of $Q({}^{27}Al)$. These high-order methods are applied to compute corrections for triple and quadruple excitations for the EFG, a crucial quantity for determining nuclear quadrupole moments. We obtain $Q({}^{27}Al)$ = 0.1466 b, in excellent agreement with the recommended value, and $Q({}^{7}Li)$ = -0.0386 b, which is smaller than the currently recommended value, that indicates the need for further investigation.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2025

Gaussian basis set approach to one-loop self-energy

We report a method for the evaluation of the one-loop self-energy, to all orders in the external binding field, using a Gaussian basis set expansion. This choice of basis is motivated by its widespread use in molecular calculations. For a one-electron atom, our results show excellent agreement with those obtained using the exact Dirac--Coulomb wave functions. The developed method can be of interest for high-precision studies of heavy few-electron molecular systems, where the rigorous computation of QED corrections is currently a formidable task.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Generating coupled cluster code for modern distributed memory tensor software

Using GPU-based HPC platforms efficiently for coupled cluster computations is a challenge due to heterogeneous hardware structures. The constant need to adapt software to these structures and the required man-hours makes a systematization of high-performance code development desirable, even more so for higher-order coupled cluster. This is generally achieved by introducing a high-level representation of the problem, which is then translated to low-level instructions for the hardware using a compiler/translator component. Designing such software comes with another challenge: Allowing efficient implementation by capturing key symmetries of tensors, while retaining the abstraction from the hardware. We review ways to address these two challenges while presenting design decisions which led us to the development of a general-order coupled cluster code generator. The systematically produced code shows excellent weak scaling behavior running on up to 1200 GPUs using the distributed memory tensor library ExaTENSOR. We present an open-source modular tensor framework "tenpi" for coupled cluster code development with diagrammatic derivation, visualization module, symbolic algebra, intermediate optimization and support for multiple tensor backends. Tenpi brings higher-order CC functionality to the massively parallel ExaCorr module of the DIRAC code for relativistic molecular calculations.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2023

Calculating the many-potential vacuum polarization density of the Dirac equation in the finite-basis approximation

In this work, we propose an efficient and accurate computational method to evaluate the many-potential $α\left(Zα\right)^{n\ge3}$ vacuum polarization density of hydrogen-like atoms within the finite-basis approximation of the Dirac equation. To prove the performance of our computational method, we choose to work with the one-electron $_{\,\,\,92}^{238}\text{U}$ atom. In summary, we find that compliance with charge conjugation symmetry is a priori required to obtain physical results that are in line with our knowledge of the analytical problem. We also note that the final numerical results are found to be in excellent agreement with previous formal analytical (and numerical) evaluations that are limited to a few simple nuclear distribution models. Our technique can be efficiently implemented and evaluated in codes that solve the radial Dirac equation in the finite basis set framework and allows the use of arbitrary (radial) nuclear charge distribution. The obtained numerical results of the non-perturbative vacuum polarization density automatically account for the extended nuclear size effect. This method is hence of special importance for atomic Dirac problems whose analytical Green's functions expressions are not at hand or have relatively complicated analytical forms. Furthermore, we propose a vacuum polarization density formula that forces compliance with charge conjugation symmetry and can be used in cases where the relativistic basis violates this symmetry, as is the case in most relativistic basis set programs. In addition, we have shown that vector components of the vacuum polarization four-current vanish in the case where the Dirac Hamiltonian is symmetric under time-reversal symmetry.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2022

4-component relativistic Hamiltonian with effective QED potentials for molecular calculations

We report the implementation of effective QED potentials for all-electron 4-component relativistic molecular calculations using the DIRAC code. The potentials are also available for 2-component calculations, proper picture-change being mandatory. Specificially, we have implemented the Uehling potential [E. A. Uehling, Phys. Rev. 48 , 55 (1935)] for vacuum polarization and two effective potentials [P. Pyykkö and L.-B. Zhao, J. Phys. B 36 , 1469 (2003); V. V. Flambaum and J. S. M. Ginges, Phys. Rev. A 72 , 052115 (2005)] for electron self-energy. We provide extensive theoretical background for these potentials. We report the following sample applications: i) we confirm the conjecture of Pyykkö that QED effects are observable for the AuCN molecule by directly calculating ground-state rotational constants $B_0$ of the three isotopomers studied by MW spectroscopy; QED brings the corresponding substitution Au-C bond length $r_s$ from 0.23 to 0.04 pm agreement with experiment, ii) spectroscopic constants of van der Waals dimers M$_2$ (M=Hg, Rn, Cn, Og) iii) there is a significant change of valence s population of Pb in the reaction PbH$_4$ -> PbH$_2$ + H$_2$, which is thereby a good candidate for observing QED effects in chemical reactions, as proposed in [K. G. Dyall et al., Chem. Phys. Lett. 348 , 497 (2001)]. QED contributes 0.32 kcal/mol to the reaction energy, thereby reducing its magnitude by -1.27 %. For corresponding hydrides of superheavy flerovium, the electronic structures are quite similar. Interestingly, the QED contribution to the reaction energy is of quite similar magnitude (0.35 kcal/mol), whereas the relative change is significantly smaller (-0.50 %). This curious observation can be explained by the faster increase of negative vacuum polarization over positive electron self-energy contributions as a function of nuclear charge.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2022

Exact two-component Hamiltonians for relativistic quantum chemistry: Two-electron picture-change corrections made simple

Based on self-consistent field (SCF) atomic mean-field (amf) quantities, we present two simple, yet computationally efficient and numerically accurate matrix-algebraic approaches to correct both scalar-relativistic \textit{and} spin-orbit two-electron picture-change effects (PCE) arising within an exact two-component (X2C) Hamiltonian framework. Both approaches, dubbed amfX2C and e(xtended)amfX2C, allow us to uniquely tailor PCE corrections to mean-field models, $viz.$ Hartree-Fock or Kohn-Sham DFT, in the latter case also avoiding the need of a point-wise calculation of exchange-correlation PCE corrections. We assess the numerical performance of these PCE correction models on spinor energies of group-18 (closed-shell) and group-16 (open-shell) diatomic molecules, achieving a consistent $\approx\!10^{-5}$ Hartree accuracy compared to reference four-component data. Additional tests include SCF calculations of molecular properties such as absolute contact density and contact density shifts in copernicium fluoride compounds (CnF$_{n}$, n=2,4,6), as well as equation-of-motion coupled cluster calculations of X-ray core ionization energies of $5d$ and $6d$-containing molecules, where we observe an excellent agreement with reference data. To conclude, we are confident that our (e)amfX2C PCE correction models constitute a fundamental milestone towards a universal and reliable relativistic two-component quantum chemical approach, maintaining the accuracy of the parent four-component one at a fraction of its computational cost.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2021

Towards highly accurate calculations of parity violation in chiral molecules: relativistic coupled-cluster theory including QED-effects

Parity-violating energies $E_{PV}$ of the $H_2X_2$ X = O, S, Se, Te, Po) molecules are reported, calculated as analytical expectation values at the relativistic coupled-cluster singles-and-doubles (CCSD) level using property-optimized basis sets. Radiative corrections to the $E_{PV}$ was investigated using effective QED-potentials and found to reach a maximal value of 2.38% for $H_2Po_2$ . However, this result depends on the choice of effective self-energy potential and may indicate limitations to their domain of validity.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2020

Beyond the electric-dipole approximation in simulations of X-ray absorption spectroscopy: Lessons from relativistic theory

We present three schemes to go beyond the electric-dipole approximation in X-ray absorption spectroscopy calculations within a four-component relativistic framework. The first is based on the full semi-classical light-matter interaction operator, and the two others on a truncated interaction within Coulomb gauge (velocity representation) and multipolar gauge (length representation). We generalize the derivation of multipolar gauge to an arbitrary expansion point and show that the potentials corresponding to different expansion point are related by a gauge transformation, provided the expansion is not truncated. This suggests that the observed gauge-origin dependence in multipolar gauge is more than just a finite-basis set effect. The simplicity of the relativistic formalism enables arbitrary-order implementations of the truncated interactions, with and without rotational averaging, allowing us to test their convergence behavior numerically by comparison to the full formulation. We confirm the observation that the oscillator strength of the electric-dipole allowed ligand K-edge transition of TiCl$_4$, when calculated to second order in the wave vector, become negative, but also show that inclusion of higher-order contributions allows convergence to the result obtained using the full light-matter interaction. However, at higher energies, the slow convergence of such expansions becomes dramatic and renders such approaches at best impractical. When going beyond the electric-dipole approximation, we therefore recommend the use of the full light-matter interaction.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2020

The DIRAC code for relativistic molecular calculations

DIRAC is a freely distributed general-purpose program system for 1-, 2- and 4-component relativistic molecular calculations at the level of Hartree--Fock, Kohn--Sham (including range-separated theory), multiconfigurational self-consistent-field, multireference configuration interaction, coupled cluster and electron propagator theory. At the self-consistent-field level a highly original scheme, based on quaternion algebra, is implemented for the treatment of both spatial and time reversal symmetry. DIRAC features a very general module for the calculation of molecular properties that to a large extent may be defined by the user and further analyzed through a powerful visualization module. It allows the inclusion of environmental effects through three different classes of increasingly sophisticated embedding approaches: the implicit solvation polarizable continuum model, the explicit polarizable embedding, and frozen density embedding models. DIRAC was one of the earliest codes for relativistic molecular calculations and remains a reference in its field.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2018

Equation-of-Motion Coupled-Cluster Theory based on the 4-component Dirac-Coulomb(-Gaunt) Hamiltonian. Energies for single electron detachment, attachment and electronically excited states

We report in this paper an implementation of 4-component relativistic Hamiltonian based Equation-of-Motion Coupled-Cluster with singles and doubles (EOM-CCSD) theory for the calculation of ionization potential (IP), electron affinity (EA) and excitation energy (EE). In this work we utilize previously developed double group symmetry-based generalized tensor contraction scheme, and also extend it in order to carry out tensor contractions involving non-totally symmetric and odd-ranked tensors. Several approximated spin-free and two-component Hamiltonians can also be accessed in this implementation. We have applied this method to the halogen monoxide (XO, X= Cl, Br, I, At, Ts) species, in order to assess the quality of a few other recent EOMCC implementations, where spin-orbit coupling contribution has been approximated in different degree. Besides, we also have studied various excited states of CH$_2$IBr, CH$_2$I$_2$ and I$_2^-$(as well as single electron attachment and detachment electronic states of the same species) where comparison has been made with a closely related multi-reference coupled-cluster method, namely Intermediate Hamiltonian Fock Space Coupled-Cluster singles and doubles (IHFS-CCSD) theory.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2018

An oxorhenium complex bearing a chiral cyclohexane-1-olato-2-thiolato ligand: synthesis, stereochemistry and theoretical study of parity violation vibrational frequency shifts

In our effort towards measuring the parity violation energy difference between two enantiomers, a simple chiral oxorhenium complex 5 bearing enantiopure 2-mercaptocyclohexan-1-ol has been prepared as a potential candidate species. Vibrational circular dichroism revealed a chiral environment surrounding the rhenium atom, even though the rhenium is not a stereogenic centre itself, and enabled to assign the (1S,2S)-(-) and (1R,2R)-(+) absolute configuration for 5. For both compound 5 and complex 4, previously studied by us and bearing a propane-2-olato-3-thiolato ligand, relativistic calculations predict parity violating vibrational frequency differences of a few hundreds of millihertz, above the expected sensitivity attainable by a molecular beam Ramsey interferometer that we are constructing.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2015

A chiral rhenium complex with predicted high parity violation effects: synthesis, stereochemical characterization by VCD spectroscopy and quantum chemical calculations

With their rich electronic, vibrational, rotational and hyperfine structure, molecular systems have the potential to play a decisive role in precision tests of fundamental physics. For example, electroweak nuclear interactions should cause small energy differences between the two enantiomers of chiral molecules, a signature of parity symmetry breaking. Enantioenriched oxorhenium(VII) complexes S-(-)- and R-(+)-3 bearing a chiral 2-methyl-1-thio-propanol ligand have been prepared as potential candidates for probing molecular parity violation effects via high resolution laser spectroscopy of the Re=O stretching. Although the rhenium atom is not a stereogenic centre in itself, experimental vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) spectra revealed a surrounding chiral environment, evidenced by the Re=O bond stretching mode signal. The calculated VCD spectrum of the R enantiomer confirmed the position of the sulfur atom cis to the methyl, as observed in the solid-state X-ray crystallographic structure, and showed the presence of two conformers of comparable stability. Relativistic quantum chemistry calculations indicate that the vibrational shift between enantiomers due to parity violation is above the target sensitivity of an ultra-high resolution infrared spectroscopy experiment under active preparation.

physics.atom-ph↗