Valence complete active space self-consistent field methods

Blancafort L, Robb MA. A valence bond description of the prefulvene extended conical intersection seam of benzene. J Chem Theory Comput. 2012 8 4922-4930. Blancafort L, Celani P, Beatpark M, Robb M. A valence-bond-based complete-active-space self-consistent-field method for the evaluation of bonding in organic molecules. Theor Chem Acc. 2003 110 92-99. 

Blancafort L et al (2003) A valence-bond-based complete-active-space self-consistent-field method for the evaluation of bonding in organic molecules. Theor Chem Acc 110 92-99... 

Amovilli et al. [20] presented a method to carry out VB analysis of complete active space-self consistent field wave functions in aqueous solution by using the DPCM approach [3], A Generalized Valence Bond perfect pairing (GVB-PP) level... 

Nondynamical electron correlation effects are generally important for reaction path calculations, when chemical bonds are broken and new bonds are formed. The multiconfiguration self-consistent field (MCSCF) method provides the appropriate description of these effects [25], In the last decade, the complete active space self-consistent field (CASSCF) method [26] has become the most widely employed MCSCF method. In the CASSCF method, a full configuration interaction (Cl) calculation is performed within a limited orbital space, the so-called active space. Thus all near degeneracy (nondynamical electron correlation) effects and orbital relaxation effects within the active space are treated at the variational level. A full-valence active space CASSCF calculation is expected to yield a qualitatively reliable description of excited-state PE surfaces. For larger systems, however, a full-valence active space CASSCF calculation quickly becomes intractable. 

The complete active space valence bond (CASVB) method is an approach for interpreting complete active space self-consistent field (CASSCF) wave functions by means of valence bond resonance structures built on atom-like localized orbitals. The transformation from CASSCF to CASVB wave functions does not change the variational space, and thus it is done without loss of information on the total energy and wave function. In the present article, some applications of the CASVB method to chemical reactions are reviewed following a brief introduction to this method unimolecular dissociation reaction of formaldehyde, H2CO — H2+CO, and hydrogen exchange reactions, H2+X — H+HX (X=F, Cl, Br, and I). 

As an illustration of the performance of TDDFT, we compare various density functionals and wave function methods for the first singlet excited states of naphthalene in Tables 4, 5, and 6. All calculations were performed using the aug-TZVP basis set, while the complete active space self-consistent field (SCF) with second-order perturbation theory (CASPT2) results from Ref. 200 were obtained in a smaller double-zeta valence basis set with some diffuse augmentation. The experimental results correspond to band maxima from gas-phase experiments however, the position of the band maximum does not necessarily coincide with the vertical excitation energy, especially if... 

Although orbital wave functions, such as Hartree-Fock, generalized valence bond, or valence-orbital complete active space self-consistent field wave functions, provide a semi-quantitative description of the electronic structure of molecules, accurate predictions of molecular properties cannot be made without explicit inclusion of the effects of dynamical electron correlation. The accuracy of correlated molecular wave functions is determined by two inter-related expansions the many-electron expansion in terms of antisymmetrized products of molecular orbitals that defines the form of the wave function, and the basis set used to expand the one-electron molecular orbitals. The error associated with the first expansion is the electronic structure method error the error associated with the second expansion is the basis set error. Only by eliminating the basis set error, i.e., by approaching the complete basis set (CBS) limit, can the intrinsic accuracy of the electronic structure method be determined. 

ACES II Anharmonic Molecular Force Fields Bench-mark Studies on Small Molecules Complete Active Space Self-consistent Field (CASSCF) Second-order Perturbation Theory (CASPT2) Configuration Interaction Core-Valence Correlation Effects Coupled-cluster Theory Density Functional Theory (DFT), Hartree-Fock (HF), and the Self-consistent Field G2 Theory Heats of Formation Hybrid Methods Hydrogen Bonding 1 M0ller-Plesset Perturbation Theory NMR Data Correlation with Chemical Structure Photochemistry Proton Affinities r 2 Dependent Wave-functions Rates of Chemical Reactions Reaction Path Following Reaction Path Hamiltonian and its Use for Investigating Reaction Mechanisms Spectroscopy Computational... 

An MCSCF calculation in which all combinations of the active space orbitals are included is called a complete active space self-consistent field (CASSCF) calculation. This type of calculation is popular because it gives the maximum correlation in the valence region. The smallest MCSCF calculations are two-configuration SCF (TCSCF) calculations. The generalized valence bond (GVB) method is a small MCSCF including a pair of orbitals for each molecular bond. 

Hyperfine couplings, in particular the isotropic part which measures the spin density at the nuclei, puts special demands on spin-restricted wave-functions. For example, complete active space (CAS) approaches are designed for a correlated treatment of the valence orbitals, while the core orbitals are doubly occupied. This leaves little flexibility in the wave function for calculating properties of this kind that depend on the spin polarization near the nucleus. This is equally true for self-consistent field methods, like restricted open-shell Hartree-Fock (ROHF) or Kohn-Sham (ROKS) methods. On the other hand, unrestricted methods introduce spin contamination in the reference (ground) state resulting in overestimation of the spin-polarization. 

A more accurate method which serves as the basis to generate orbitals for higher-order electron-correlation effects is the complete active space multi-configuration self-consistent field (CAS-MCSCF or CASSCF) method. In this method, a set of the most active electrons, usually the valence electrons, are distributed in all possible ways... 

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