The generality of the GUGA MRCI approach in COLUMBUS for treating complex quantum chemistry.

The core part of the program system COLUMBUS allows highly efficient calculations using variational multireference (MR) methods in the framework of configuration interaction with single and double excitations (MR-CISD) and averaged quadratic coupled-cluster calculations (MR-AQCC), based on uncontracted sets of configurations and the graphical unitary group approach (GUGA). The availability of analytic MR-CISD and MR-AQCC energy gradients and analytic nonadiabatic couplings for MR-CISD enables exciting applications including, e.g., investigations of π-conjugated biradicaloid compounds, calculations of multitudes of excited states, development of diabatization procedures, and furnishing the electronic structure information for on-the-fly surface nonadiabatic dynamics. With fully variational uncontracted spin-orbit MRCI, COLUMBUS provides a unique possibility of performing high-level calculations on compounds containing heavy atoms up to lanthanides and actinides. Crucial for carrying out all of these calculations effectively is the availability of an efficient parallel code for the CI step. Configuration spaces of several billion in size now can be treated quite routinely on standard parallel computer clusters. Emerging developments in COLUMBUS, including the all configuration mean energy multiconfiguration self-consistent field method and the graphically contracted function method, promise to allow practically unlimited configuration space dimensions. Spin density based on the GUGA approach, analytic spin-orbit energy gradients, possibilities for local electron correlation MR calculations, development of general interfaces for nonadiabatic dynamics, and MRCI linear vibronic coupling models conclude this overview.

Recent performance improvements to the DFT and TDDFT in GAMESS.

The general atomic and molecular electronic structure system (GAMESS) is a quantum chemistry package used in the first-principles modeling of complex molecular systems using density functional theory (DFT) as well as a number of other post-Hartree-Fock methods. Both DFT and time-dependent DFT (TDDFT) are of particular interest to the materials modeling community. Millions of CPU hours per year are expended by GAMESS calculations on high-performance computing systems; any substantial reduction in the time-to-solution for these calculations represents a significant saving in CPU hours. As part of this work, three areas for improvement were identified: (1) the exchange-correlation (XC) integration grid, (2) profiling and optimization of the DFT code, and (3) TDDFT parallelization. We summarize the work performed in these task areas and present the resulting performance improvement. These software enhancements are available in 12JAN2009R3 or later versions of GAMESS.

Assessment of the accuracy of shape-consistent relativistic effective core potentials using multireference spin-orbit configuration interaction singles and doubles calculations of the ground and low-lying excited states of U(4+) and U(5+).

Multireference spin-orbit configuration interaction calculations were used to determine the accuracy of 60-, 68-, and 78-electron shape-consistent relativistic effective core potentials (RECPs) for uranium V and VI ground and low-lying excited states. Both 5f(n) and (5f6d)(n), (n = 1, 2) reference spaces were investigated using correlation-consistent double-zeta quality basis sets. Accuracy was assessed against gas-phase experimental spectra. The 68-electron RECP calculations yielded low relative and rms errors and predicted the empirical ordering of states most consistently.