Relativistic effects computation method

Unlike semiempirical methods that are formulated to completely neglect the core electrons, ah initio methods must represent all the electrons in some manner. However, for heavy atoms it is desirable to reduce the amount of computation necessary. This is done by replacing the core electrons and their basis functions in the wave function by a potential term in the Hamiltonian. These are called core potentials, elfective core potentials (ECP), or relativistic effective core potentials (RECP). Core potentials must be used along with a valence basis set that was created to accompany them. As well as reducing the computation time, core potentials can include the effects of the relativistic mass defect and spin coupling terms that are significant near the nuclei of heavy atoms. This is often the method of choice for heavy atoms, Rb and up. 

The use of RECP s is often the method of choice for computations on heavy atoms. There are several reasons for this The core potential replaces a large number of electrons, thus making the calculation run faster. It is the least computation-intensive way to include relativistic effects in ah initio calculations. Furthermore, there are few semiempirical or molecular mechanics methods that are reliable for heavy atoms. Core potentials were discussed further in Chapter 10. 

Nearly every technical difficulty known is routinely encountered in transition metal calculations. Calculations on open-shell compounds encounter problems due to spin contamination and experience more problems with SCF convergence. For the heavier transition metals, relativistic effects are significant. Many transition metals compounds require correlation even to obtain results that are qualitatively correct. Compounds with low-lying excited states are difficult to converge and require additional work to ensure that the desired states are being computed. Metals also present additional problems in parameterizing semi-empirical and molecular mechanics methods. 

Relativistic effects are significant for the heavier metals. The method of choice is nearly always relativistically derived effective core potentials. Explicit spin-orbit terms can be included in ah initio calculations, but are seldom used because of the amount of computational effort necessary. Relativistic calculations are discussed in greater detail in Chapter 33. 

On the other hand, high-level computational methods are limited, for obvious reasons, to very simple systems.122 Calculations are likely to have limited accuracy due to basis set effects, relativistic contributions, and spin orbit corrections, especially in the case of tin hydrides, but these concerns can be addressed. Given the computational economy of density functional theories and the excellent behavior of the hybrid-DFT B3LYP123 already demonstrated for calculations of radical energies,124 we anticipate good progress in the theoretical approach. We hope that this collection serves as a reference for computational work that we are certain will be forthcoming. 

Straight simulation of collision processes relevant to stopping by solution of the classical equations of motion has been common for about two decades [64]. Although the necessary computational effort is considerable, remarkable results have been found in comparisons with experimental results such as emitted-electron spectra [65]. The main application area of this method refers to very heavy ions at not too high speeds where the Bohr criterion is well satisfied yet relativistic effects are insignificant. 

All calculations were carried out with the software MOLCAS-6.0 [16]. Scalar relativistic effects were included using a DKH Hamiltonian [14,15]. Specially designed basis sets of the atomic natural orbital type were used. These basis sets have been optimized with the scalar DKH Hamiltonian. They were generated using the CASSCF/CASPT2 method. The semi-core electrons (ns, np, n — 3,4, 5) were included in the correlation treatment. More details can be found in Refs. [17-19]. The size of the basis sets is presented in Table 1. All atoms have been computed with basis sets including up to g-type function. For the first row TMs we also studied the effect of adding two h-type functions. 

In this paper we present the first application of the ZORA (Zeroth Order Regular Approximation of the Dirac Fock equation) formalism in Ab Initio electronic structure calculations. The ZORA method, which has been tested previously in the context of Density Functional Theory, has been implemented in the GAMESS-UK package. As was shown earlier we can split off a scalar part from the two component ZORA Hamiltonian. In the present work only the one component part is considered. We introduce a separate internal basis to represent the extra matrix elements, needed for the ZORA corrections. This leads to different options for the computation of the Coulomb matrix in this internal basis. The performance of this Hamiltonian and the effect of the different Coulomb matrix alternatives is tested in calculations on the radon en xenon atoms and the AuH molecule. In the atomic cases we compare with numerical Dirac Fock and numerical ZORA methods and with non relativistic and full Dirac basis set calculations. It is shown that ZORA recovers the bulk of the relativistic effect and that ZORA and Dirac Fock perform equally well in medium size basis set calculations. For AuH we have calculated the equilibrium bond length with the non relativistic Hartree Fock and ZORA methods and compare with the Dirac Fock result and the experimental value. Again the ZORA and Dirac Fock errors are of the same order of magnitude. 

Abstract. Investigation of P,T-parity nonconservation (PNC) phenomena is of fundamental importance for physics. Experiments to search for PNC effects have been performed on TIE and YbF molecules and are in progress for PbO and PbF molecules. For interpretation of molecular PNC experiments it is necessary to calculate those needed molecular properties which cannot be measured. In particular, electronic densities in heavy-atom cores are required for interpretation of the measured data in terms of the P,T-odd properties of elementary particles or P,T-odd interactions between them. Reliable calculations of the core properties (PNC effect, hyperfine structure etc., which are described by the operators heavily concentrated in atomic cores or on nuclei) usually require accurate accounting for both relativistic and correlation effects in heavy-atom systems. In this paper, some basic aspects of the experimental search for PNC effects in heavy-atom molecules and the computational methods used in their electronic structure calculations are discussed. The latter include the generalized relativistic effective core potential (GRECP) approach and the methods of nonvariational and variational one-center restoration of correct shapes of four-component spinors in atomic cores after a two-component GRECP calculation of a molecule. Their efficiency is illustrated with calculations of parameters of the effective P,T-odd spin-rotational Hamiltonians in the molecules PbF, HgF, YbF, BaF, TIF, and PbO. 

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