Electron correlation coupled-cluster methods

The relativistic coupled cluster method starts from the four-component solutions of the Drrac-Fock or Dirac-Fock-Breit equations, and correlates them by the coupled-cluster approach. The Fock-space coupled-cluster method yields atomic transition energies in good agreement (usually better than 0.1 eV) with known experimental values. This is demonstrated here by the electron affinities of group-13 atoms. Properties of superheavy atoms which are not known experimentally can be predicted. Here we show that the rare gas eka-radon (element 118) will have a positive electron affinity. One-, two-, and four-components methods are described and applied to several states of CdH and its ions. Methods for calculating properties other than energy are discussed, and the electric field gradients of Cl, Br, and I, required to extract nuclear quadrupoles from experimental data, are calculated. 

In order to get more detailed information about, e.g., bond strengths and equilibrium geometries in transition metal systems it is necessary to include electron correlation. This can be done either by traditional ab initio quantum chemistry models, e.g., Cl-methods and coupled cluster methods, or by density functional theory (DFT) based methods. Correlated ab initio methods are often computationally very demanding, especially in cases where multi-reference based treatments are needed. Also, the computational cost of these methods increases dramatically with the size of the system. This implies that they can only be applied to rather small systems. 

The Configuration Interaction Approach to Electron Correlation - The Coupled Cluster Method... 

First let us review static and dynamic electron correlation. Dynamic (dynamical) electron correlation is easy to grasp, if not so easy to treat exhaustively. It is simply the adjustment by each electron, at each moment, of its motion in accordance with its interaction with each other electron in the system. Dynamic correlation and its treatment with perturbation (Mpller-Plesset), configuration interaction, and coupled cluster methods was covered in Section 5.4. 

There are various ways to account for the electron correlation effects. In the following we will classify these methods into three groups configuration interaction, perturbation, and coupled cluster methods. 

The CASSCF method itself is not very useful for anything else than systems with few electrons unless an effective method to treat dynamical correlation effects could be developed. The Multi-Reference Cl (MRCI) method was available but was limited due to the steep increase of the size of the Cl expansion as a function of the number of correlated electrons, the basis set, and the number of active orbitals in the reference function. The direct MRCI formulation by P. Siegbahn helped but the limits still prevented applications to larger systems with many valence electrons [20], The method is still used with some success due to recent technological developments [21], Another drawback with the MRCI approach is the lack of size-extensivity, even if methods are available that can approximately correct the energies. Multi-reference coupled-cluster methods are studied but have not yet reached a state where real applications are possible. 

ELECTRON CORRELATION METHODS 4.9 COUPLED CLUSTER METHODS 135... 

Molecular polarizabilities and hyperpolarizabilities are now routinely calculated in many computational packages and reported in publications that are not primarily concerned with these properties. Very often the calculated values are not likely to be of quantitative accuracy when compared with experimental data. One difficulty is that, except in the case of very small molecules, gas phase data is unobtainable and some allowance has to be made for the effect of the molecular environment in a condensed phase. Another is that the accurate determination of the nonlinear response functions requires that electron correlation should be treated accurately and this is not easy to achieve for the molecules that are of greatest interest. Very often the higher-level calculation is confined to zero frequency and the results scaled by using a less complete theory for the frequency dependence. Typically, ab initio studies use coupled-cluster methods for the static values scaled to frequencies where the effects are observable with time-dependent Hartree-Fock theory. Density functional methods require the introduction of specialized functions before they can cope with the hyperpolarizabilities and higher order magnetic effects. 

Keywords many-electron correlation problem, post-Hartree-Fock methods, coupled cluster approaches, configuration interaction, externally corrected coupled cluster methods, reduced multireference coupled cluster method... 

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