The General Atomic and Molecular Electronic Structure System (GAMESS): Novel Methods on Novel Architectures.

The primary focus of GAMESS over the last 5 years has been the development of new high-performance codes that are able to take effective and efficient advantage of the most advanced computer architectures, both CPU and accelerators. These efforts include employing density fitting and fragmentation methods to reduce the high scaling of well-correlated (e.g., coupled-cluster) methods as well as developing novel codes that can take optimal advantage of graphical processing units and other modern accelerators. Because accurate wave functions can be very complex, an important new functionality in GAMESS is the quasi-atomic orbital analysis, an unbiased approach to the understanding of covalent bonds embedded in the wave function. Best practices for the maintenance and distribution of GAMESS are also discussed.

Accelerating Coupled-Cluster Calculations with GPUs: An Implementation of the Density-Fitted CCSD(T) Approach for Heterogeneous Computing Architectures Using OpenMP Directives.

An algorithm is presented for the coupled-cluster singles, doubles, and perturbative triples correction [CCSD(T)] method based on the density fitting or the resolution-of-the-identity (RI) approximation for performing calculations on heterogeneous computing platforms composed of multicore CPUs and graphics processing units (GPUs). The directive-based approach to GPU offloading offered by the OpenMP application programming interface has been employed to adapt the most compute-intensive terms in the RI-CCSD amplitude equations with computational costs scaling as O(NO2NV4), O(NO3NV3), and O(NO4NV2) (where NO and NV denote the numbers of correlated occupied and virtual orbitals, respectively) and the perturbative triples correction to execute on GPU architectures. The pertinent tensor contractions are performed using an accelerated math library such as cuBLAS or hipBLAS. Optimal strategies are discussed for splitting large data arrays into tiles to fit them into the relatively small memory space of the GPUs, while also minimizing the low-bandwidth CPU-GPU data transfers. The performance of the hybrid CPU-GPU RI-CCSD(T) code is demonstrated on pre-exascale supercomputers composed of heterogeneous nodes equipped with NVIDIA Tesla V100 and A100 GPUs and on the world's first exascale supercomputer named "Frontier", the nodes of which consist of AMD MI250X GPUs. Speedups within the range 4-8× relative to the recently reported CPU-only algorithm are obtained for the GPU-offloaded terms in the RI-CCSD amplitude equations. Applications to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons containing 16-66 carbon atoms demonstrate that the acceleration of the hybrid CPU-GPU code for the perturbative triples correction relative to the CPU-only code increases with the molecule size, attaining a speedup of 5.7× for the largest circumovalene molecule (C66H20). The GPU-offloaded code enables the computation of the perturbative triples correction for the C60 molecule using the cc-pVDZ/aug-cc-pVTZ-RI basis sets in 7 min on Frontier when using 12,288 AMD GPUs with a parallel efficiency of 83.1%.

Porting fragmentation methods to GPUs using an OpenMP API: Offloading the resolution-of-the-identity second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation method.

Using an OpenMP Application Programming Interface, the resolution-of-the-identity second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation (RI-MP2) method has been off-loaded onto graphical processing units (GPUs), both as a standalone method in the GAMESS electronic structure program and as an electron correlation energy component in the effective fragment molecular orbital (EFMO) framework. First, a new scheme has been proposed to maximize data digestion on GPUs that subsequently linearizes data transfer from central processing units (CPUs) to GPUs. Second, the GAMESS Fortran code has been interfaced with GPU numerical libraries (e.g., NVIDIA cuBLAS and cuSOLVER) for efficient matrix operations (e.g., matrix multiplication, matrix decomposition, and matrix inversion). The standalone GPU RI-MP2 code shows an increasing speedup of up to 7.5× using one NVIDIA V100 GPU with one IBM 42-core P9 CPU for calculations on fullerenes of increasing size from 40 to 260 carbon atoms using the 6-31G(d)/cc-pVDZ-RI basis sets. A single Summit node with six V100s can compute the RI-MP2 correlation energy of a cluster of 175 water molecules using the correlation consistent basis sets cc-pVDZ/cc-pVDZ-RI containing 4375 atomic orbitals and 14 700 auxiliary basis functions in ∼0.85 h. In the EFMO framework, the GPU RI-MP2 component shows near linear scaling for a large number of V100s when computing the energy of an 1800-atom mesoporous silica nanoparticle in a bath of 4000 water molecules. The parallel efficiencies of the GPU RI-MP2 component with 2304 and 4608 V100s are 98.0% and 96.1%, respectively.

Quantum Chemical Modeling of Propellant Degradation.

An ab initio quantum chemical approach for the modeling of propellant degradation is presented. Using state-of-the-art bonding analysis techniques and composite methods, a series of potential degradation reactions are devised for a sample hydroxyl-terminated-polybutadiene (HTPB) type solid fuel. By applying thermochemical procedures and isodesmic reactions, accurate thermochemical quantities are obtained using a modified G3 composite method based on the resolution of the identity. The calculated heats of formation for the different structures produced presents an ∼2 kcal/mol average error when compared against experimental values.

PDG: A Composite Method Based on the Resolution of the Identity.

The Gaussian-3 (G3) composite approach for thermochemical properties is revisited in light of the enhanced computational efficiency and reduced memory costs by applying the resolution-of-the-identity (RI) approximation for two-electron repulsion integrals (ERIs) to the computationally demanding component methods in the G3 model: the energy and gradient computations via the second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2) and the energy computations using the coupled-cluster singles-doubles method augmented with noniterative triples corrections [CCSD(T)]. Efficient implementation of the RI-based methods is achieved by employing a hybrid distributed/shared memory model based on MPI and OpenMP. The new variant of the G3 composite approach based on the RI approximation is termed the RI-G3 scheme, or alternatively the PDG method. The accuracy of the new RI-G3/PDG scheme is compared to the "standard" G3 composite approach that employs the memory-expensive four-center ERIs in the MP2 and CCSD(T) calculations. Taking the computation of the heats of formation of the closed-shell molecules in the G3/99 test set as a test case, it is demonstrated that the RI approximation introduces negligible changes to the mean absolute errors relative to the standard G3 model (less than 0.1 kcal/mol), while the standard deviations remain unaltered. The efficiency and memory requirements for the RI-MP2 and RI-CCSD(T) methods are compared to the standard MP2 and CCSD(T) approaches, respectively. The hybrid MPI/OpenMP-based RI-MP2 energy plus gradient computation is found to attain a 7.5× speedup over the standard MP2 calculations. For the most demanding CCSD(T) calculations, the application of the RI approximation is found to nearly halve the memory demand, confer about a 4-5× speedup for the CCSD iterations, and reduce the computational time for the compute-intensive triples correction step by several hours.

A Massively Parallel Implementation of the CCSD(T) Method Using the Resolution-of-the-Identity Approximation and a Hybrid Distributed/Shared Memory Parallelization Model.

A parallel algorithm is described for the coupled-cluster singles and doubles method augmented with a perturbative correction for triple excitations [CCSD(T)] using the resolution-of-the-identity (RI) approximation for two-electron repulsion integrals (ERIs). The algorithm bypasses the storage of four-center ERIs by adopting an integral-direct strategy. The CCSD amplitude equations are given in a compact quasi-linear form by factorizing them in terms of amplitude-dressed three-center intermediates. A hybrid MPI/OpenMP parallelization scheme is employed, which uses the OpenMP-based shared memory model for intranode parallelization and the MPI-based distributed memory model for internode parallelization. Parallel efficiency has been optimized for all terms in the CCSD amplitude equations. Two different algorithms have been implemented for the rate-limiting terms in the CCSD amplitude equations that entail O(NO2NV4) and O(NO3NV3)-scaling computational costs, where NO and NV denote the number of correlated occupied and virtual orbitals, respectively. One of the algorithms assembles the four-center ERIs requiring NV4 and NO2NV2-scaling memory costs in a distributed manner on a number of MPI ranks, while the other algorithm completely bypasses the assembling of quartic memory-scaling ERIs and thus largely reduces the memory demand. It is demonstrated that the former memory-expensive algorithm is faster on a few hundred cores, while the latter memory-economic algorithm shows a better strong scaling in the limit of a few thousand cores. The program is shown to exhibit a near-linear scaling, in particular for the compute-intensive triples correction step, on up to 8000 cores. The performance of the program is demonstrated via calculations involving molecules with 24-51 atoms and up to 1624 atomic basis functions. As the first application, the complete basis set (CBS) limit for the interaction energy of the π-stacked uracil dimer from the S66 data set has been investigated. This work reports the first calculation of the interaction energy at the CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVQZ level without local orbital approximation. The CBS limit for the CCSD correlation contribution to the interaction energy was found to be -8.01 kcal/mol, which agrees very well with the value -7.99 kcal/mol reported by Schmitz, Hättig, and Tew [ Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2014, 16, 22167-22178]. The CBS limit for the total interaction energy was estimated to be -9.64 kcal/mol.

57Fe Mössbauer parameters from domain based local pair-natural orbital coupled-cluster theory.

We report on applications of the domain based local pair-natural orbital (PNO) coupled-cluster method within the singles and doubles approximation (DLPNO-CCSD) to the calculation of 57Fe isomer shifts and quadrupole splittings in a small training set of iron complexes consisting of large molecular ligands and iron atoms in varying charge, spin, and oxidation states. The electron densities and electric field gradients needed for these calculations were obtained within the recently implemented analytic derivative scheme. A method for the direct treatment of scalar relativistic effects in the calculation of effective electron densities is described by using the first-order Douglas-Kroll-Hess Hamiltonian and a Gaussian charge distribution model for the nucleus. The performance of DLPNO-CCSD is compared with four modern-day density functionals, namely, RPBE, TPSS, B3LYP, and B2PLYP, as well as with the second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory. An excellent correlation between the calculated electron densities and the experimental isomer shifts is attained with the DLPNO-CCSD method. The correlation constant a obtained from the slope of the linear correlation plot is found to be ≈-0.31 a.u.3 mm s-1, which agrees very well with the experimental calibration constant α = -0.31 ± 0.04 a.u.3 mm s-1. This value of a is obtained consistently using both nonrelativistic and scalar relativistic DLPNO-CCSD electron densities. While the B3LYP and B2PLYP functionals achieve equally good correlation between theory and experiment, the correlation constant a is found to deviate from the experimental value. Similar trends are observed also for quadrupole splittings. The value of the nuclear quadrupole moment for 57Fe is estimated to be 0.15 b at the DLPNO-CCSD level. This is consistent with previous results and is here supported by a higher level of theory. The DLPNO-CCSD results are found to be insensitive to the intrinsic approximations in the method, in particular the PNO occupation number truncation error, while the results obtained with density functional theory (DFT) are found to depend on the choice of the functional. In a statistical sense, i.e., on the basis of the linear regression analysis, however, the accuracies of the DFT and DLPNO-CCSD results can be considered comparable.

Recent developments in the general atomic and molecular electronic structure system.

A discussion of many of the recently implemented features of GAMESS (General Atomic and Molecular Electronic Structure System) and LibCChem (the C++ CPU/GPU library associated with GAMESS) is presented. These features include fragmentation methods such as the fragment molecular orbital, effective fragment potential and effective fragment molecular orbital methods, hybrid MPI/OpenMP approaches to Hartree-Fock, and resolution of the identity second order perturbation theory. Many new coupled cluster theory methods have been implemented in GAMESS, as have multiple levels of density functional/tight binding theory. The role of accelerators, especially graphical processing units, is discussed in the context of the new features of LibCChem, as it is the associated problem of power consumption as the power of computers increases dramatically. The process by which a complex program suite such as GAMESS is maintained and developed is considered. Future developments are briefly summarized.

Psychological Problems and Cleft Lip and/or Palate.

We read with great interest the article entitled "Diagnóstico de fisura labio palatina en niños pequeños de Nicaragua: impacto del diagnóstico a nivel familiar". It is well known that children with CL/P are at risk for psychological problems. In this connection, we would like to briefly discuss the finding of the study of Ortega and Vázquez (2018).

Accurate Prediction of Hyperfine Coupling Tensors for Main Group Elements Using a Unitary Group Based Rigorously Spin-Adapted Coupled-Cluster Theory.

We present the development of a perturbative triples correction scheme for the previously reported unitary group based spin-adapted combinatoric open-shell coupled-cluster (CC) singles and doubles (COS-CCSD) approach and report on the applications of the newly developed method, termed "COS-CCSD(T)", to the calculation of hyperfine coupling (HFC) tensors for radicals consisting of hydrogen, second- and third-row elements. The COS-CCSD(T) method involves a single noniterative step with [Formula: see text] scaling of the computational cost for the calculation of triples corrections to the energy. The key feature of this development is the use of spatial semicanonical orbitals generated from standard restricted open-shell Hartree-Fock (ROHF) orbitals, which allows the unperturbed Hamiltonian operator to be defined in terms of a diagonal spin-free Fock operator. The HFC tensors are computed as a first-order property via implementation of an analytic derivative scheme. The required one-particle spin density matrix is computed by using one- and two-particle spin-free density matrices that are obtained from the analytic derivative implementation, in this way avoiding the use of any spin-dependent operator and maintaining spin adaptation of the CC wavefunction. Benchmark calculations of HFC tensors for a set of 21 radicals indicate reasonably good agreement of the COS-CCSD(T) results with experiment and a consistent improvement over the COS-CCSD method. We demonstrate that the accuracies of the isotropic hyperfine coupling constants obtained in unrestricted HF (UHF) reference based spin-orbital CCSD(T) calculations deteriorate when spin contamination in the UHF wavefunction is large, and the results may even become qualitatively incorrect when spin polarization is the driving mechanism. Within a similar noniterative perturbative treatment of triple excitations, the spin-adapted COS-CCSD(T) approach produces accurate results, thus ensuring cost-effectiveness together with reliability.

Communication: spin densities within a unitary group based spin-adapted open-shell coupled-cluster theory: analytic evaluation of isotropic hyperfine-coupling constants for the combinatoric open-shell coupled-cluster scheme.

We report analytical calculations of isotropic hyperfine-coupling constants in radicals using a spin-adapted open-shell coupled-cluster theory, namely, the unitary group based combinatoric open-shell coupled-cluster (COSCC) approach within the singles and doubles approximation. A scheme for the evaluation of the one-particle spin-density matrix required in these calculations is outlined within the spin-free formulation of the COSCC approach. In this scheme, the one-particle spin-density matrix for an open-shell state with spin S and MS = + S is expressed in terms of the one- and two-particle spin-free (charge) density matrices obtained from the Lagrangian formulation that is used for calculating the analytic first derivatives of the energy. Benchmark calculations are presented for NO, NCO, CH2CN, and two conjugated π-radicals, viz., allyl and 1-pyrrolyl in order to demonstrate the performance of the proposed scheme.

Analytic first derivatives for a spin-adapted open-shell coupled cluster theory: evaluation of first-order electrical properties.

An analytic scheme is presented for the evaluation of first derivatives of the energy for a unitary group based spin-adapted coupled cluster (CC) theory, namely, the combinatoric open-shell CC (COSCC) approach within the singles and doubles approximation. The widely used Lagrange multiplier approach is employed for the derivation of an analytical expression for the first derivative of the energy, which in combination with the well-established density-matrix formulation, is used for the computation of first-order electrical properties. Derivations of the spin-adapted lambda equations for determining the Lagrange multipliers and the expressions for the spin-free effective density matrices for the COSCC approach are presented. Orbital-relaxation effects due to the electric-field perturbation are treated via the Z-vector technique. We present calculations of the dipole moments for a number of doublet radicals in their ground states using restricted open-shell Hartree-Fock (ROHF) and quasi-restricted HF (QRHF) orbitals in order to demonstrate the applicability of our analytic scheme for computing energy derivatives. We also report calculations of the chlorine electric-field gradients and nuclear quadrupole-coupling constants for the CCl, CH2Cl, ClO2, and SiCl radicals.

Communication: multireference equation of motion coupled cluster: a transform and diagonalize approach to electronic structure.

The novel multireference equation-of-motion coupled-cluster (MREOM-CC) approaches provide versatile and accurate access to a large number of electronic states. The methods proceed by a sequence of many-body similarity transformations and a subsequent diagonalization of the transformed Hamiltonian over a compact subspace. The transformed Hamiltonian is a connected entity and preserves spin- and spatial symmetry properties of the original Hamiltonian, but is no longer Hermitean. The final diagonalization spaces are defined in terms of a complete active space (CAS) and limited excitations (1h, 1p, 2h, …) out of the CAS. The methods are invariant to rotations of orbitals within their respective subspaces (inactive, active, external). Applications to first row transition metal atoms (Cr, Mn, and Fe) are presented yielding results for up to 524 electronic states (for Cr) with an rms error compared to experiment of about 0.05 eV. The accuracy of the MREOM family of methods is closely related to its favorable extensivity properties as illustrated by calculations on the O2-O2 dimer. The computational costs of the transformation steps in MREOM are comparable to those of closed-shell Coupled Cluster Singles and Doubles (CCSD) approach.

Additional global internal contraction in variations of multireference equation of motion coupled cluster theory.

Extensions of multireference equation of motion coupled cluster theory (MR-EOMCC) [D. Datta and M. Nooijen, J. Chem. Phys. 137, 204107 (2012)] are presented that include additional correlation effects into the global, internally contracted similarity transformation, induced by the cluster operators. As a result the final uncontracted diagonalization space can be more compact than in the parent MR-EOMCC approach. A wide range of applications, including transition metal atomic excitation spectra, a large set of valence excited states of organic compounds, and potential energy surfaces of ground and excited states of butadiene, is presented to benchmark the applicability of the parent MR-EOMCC methodology and its new variations.

A Non-antisymmetric Tensor Contraction Engine for the Automated Implementation of Spin-Adapted Coupled Cluster Approaches.

We present a symbolic manipulation algorithm for the efficient automated implementation of rigorously spin-free coupled cluster (CC) theories based on a unitary group parametrization. Due to the lack of antisymmetry of the unitary group generators under index permutations, all quantities involved in the equations are expressed in terms of non-antisymmetric tensors. Given two tensors, all possible contractions are first generated by applying Wick's theorem. Each term is then put down in the form of a non-antisymmetric Goldstone diagram by assigning its contraction topology. The subsequent simplification of the equations by summing up equivalent terms and their factorization by identifying common intermediates is performed via comparison of these contraction topologies. The definition of the contraction topology is completely general for non-antisymmetric Goldstone diagrams, which enables our algorithm to deal with noncommuting excitations in the cluster operator that arises in the unitary group based CC formulation for open-shell systems. The resulting equations are implemented in a new code, in which tensor contractions are performed by successive application of matrix-matrix multiplications. Implementation of the unitary group adapted CC equations for closed-shell systems and for the simplest open-shell case, i.e., doublets, is discussed, and representative calculations are presented in order to assess the efficiency of the generated codes.

Multireference equation-of-motion coupled cluster theory.

A generalization of the equation-of-motion coupled cluster theory is proposed, which is built upon a multireference parent state. This method is suitable for a number of electronic states of a system that can be described by similar active spaces, i.e., different linear combinations of the same set of active space determinants. One of the suitable states is chosen as the parent state and the dominant dynamical correlation is optimized for this state using an internally contracted multireference coupled cluster ansatz. The remaining correlation and orbital relaxation effects are obtained via an uncontracted diagonalization of the transformed Hamiltonian, H = e(-T) He(T), in a compact multireference configuration interaction space, which involves configurations with at most single virtual orbital substitution. The latter effects are thus state-specific and this allows us to obtain multiple electronic states in the spirit of the equation-of-motion coupled cluster approach. A crucial aspect of this formulation is the use of the amplitudes of the generalized normal-ordered transformed Hamiltonian H as the residual equations for determining the internally contracted cluster amplitudes without any projection onto the excited configurations. These residuals have been termed as the many-body residuals. These equations are formally non-singular and thus allow us to solve for all amplitudes without discarding any, in contrast to other internally contracted approaches. This is desirable to ensure transferability of dynamical correlation from the parent state to the target states. Preliminary results involving the low-lying electronic states of C(2), O(2), and the excitation spectra of three transition metal atoms, e.g., Fe, Cr, and Mn, including hundreds of excited states, illustrate the potential of our approach.

Inactive excitations in Mukherjee's state-specific multireference coupled cluster theory treated with internal contraction: development and applications.

One generic difficulty of most state-specific many-body formalisms using the Jeziorski-Monkhorst ansatz: ψ = Σ(µ)exp(T(µ))|φ(µ)>c(µ) for the wave-operators is the large number of redundant cluster amplitudes. The number of cluster amplitudes up to a given rank is many more in number compared to the dimension of the Hilbert Space spanned by the virtual functions of up to the same rank of excitations. At the same time, all inactive excitations--though linearly independent--are far too numerous. It is well known from the success of the contracted multi-reference configuration interaction (MRCI(SD)) that, at least for the inactive double excitations, their model space dependence (µ-dependence) is weak. Considerable simplifications can thus be obtained by using a partially internally contracted description, which uses the physically appealing approximation of taking the inactive excitations T(i) to be independent of the model space labels (µ-independent). We propose and implement in this paper such a formalism with internal contractions for inactive excitations (ICI) within Mukherjee's state-specific multi-reference coupled cluster theory (SS-MRCC) framework (referred to from now on as the ICI-SS-MRCC). To the extent the µ-independence of T(i) is valid, we expect the ICI-SS-MRCC to retain the conceptual advantages of size-extensivity yet using a drastically reduced number of cluster amplitudes without sacrificing accuracy. Moreover, greater coupling is achieved between the virtual functions reached by inactive excitations as a result of the internal contraction while retaining the original coupling term for the µ-dependent excitations akin to the parent theory. Another major advantage of the ICI-SS-MRCC, unlike the other analogous internally contracted theories, such as IC-MRCISD, CASPT2, or MRMP2, is that it can use relaxed coefficients for the model functions. However, at the same time it employs projection manifolds for the virtuals obtained from inactive n hole-n particle (nh-np) excitations on the entire reference function containing relaxed model space coefficients. The performance of the method has been assessed by applying it to compute the potential energy surfaces of the prototypical H(4); to the torsional potential energy barrier for the cis-trans isomerism in C(2)H(4) as well as that of N(2)H(2), automerization of cyclobutadiene, single point energy calculation of CH(2), SiH(2), and comparing them against the SS-MRCC results, benchmark full CI results, wherever available and those from the allied MR formalisms. Our findings are very much reminiscent of the experience gained from the IC-MRCISD method.

A state-specific partially internally contracted multireference coupled cluster approach.

A state-specific partially internally contracted multireference coupled cluster approach is presented for general complete active spaces with arbitrary number of active electrons. The dominant dynamical correlation is included via an exponential parametrization of internally contracted cluster operators ( ̂T) which excite electrons from a multideterminantal reference function. The remaining dynamical correlation and relaxation effects are included via a diagonalization of the transformed Hamiltonian ̅H =e(- ̂T)He( ̂T) in the multireference configuration interaction singles space in an uncontracted fashion. A new set of residual equations for determining the internally contracted cluster amplitudes is proposed. The second quantized matrix elements of ̅H , expressed using the extended normal ordering of Kutzelnigg and Mukherjee, are used as the residual equations without projection onto the excited configurations. These residual equations, referred to as the many-body residuals, do not have any near-singularity and thus, should allow one to solve all the amplitudes without discarding any. There are some relatively minor remaining convergence issues that may arise from an attempt to solve all the amplitudes and an initial analysis is provided in this paper. Applications to the bond-stretching potential energy surfaces for N(2), CO, and the low-lying electronic states of C(2) indicate clear improvements of the results using the many-body residuals over the conventional projected residual equations.

The spin-free analogue of Mukherjee's state-specific multireference coupled cluster theory.

In this paper, we develop a rigorously spin-adapted version of Mukherjee's state-specific multireference coupled cluster theory (SS-MRCC, also known as Mk-MRCC) [U. S. Mahapatra, B. Datta, and D. Mukherjee, J. Chem. Phys. 110, 6171 (1999)] for reference spaces comprising open-shell configurations. The principal features of our approach are as follows: (1) The wave operator Ω is written as Ω = ∑(µ)Ω(µ)|φ(µ)>c(µ), where {φ(µ)} is the set of configuration state functions spanning a complete active space. (2) In contrast to the Jeziorski-Monkhorst Ansatz in spin-orbital basis, we write Ω(µ) as a power series expansion of cluster operators R(µ) defined in terms of spin-free unitary generators. (3) The operators R(µ) are either closed-shell-like n hole-n particle excitations (denoted as T(µ)) or they involve valence (active) destruction operators (denoted as S(µ)); these latter type of operators can have active-active scatterings, which can also carry the same active orbital labels (such S(µ)'s are called to have spectator excitations). (4) To simulate multiple excitations involving powers of cluster operators, we allow the S(µ)'s carrying the same active orbital labels to contract among themselves. (5) We exclude S(µ)'s with direct spectator scatterings. (6) Most crucially, the factors associated with contracted composites are chosen as the inverse of the number of ways the S(µ)'s can be joined among one another leading to the same excitation. The factors introduced in (6) have been called the automorphic factors by us. One principal thrust of this paper is to show that the use of the automorphic factors imparts a remarkable simplicity to the final amplitude equations: the equations consist of terms that are at most quartic in cluster amplitudes, barring only a few. In close analogy to the Mk-MRCC theory, the inherent linear dependence of the cluster amplitudes leading to redundancy is resolved by invoking sufficiency conditions, which are exact spin-free analogues of the spin-orbital based Mk-MRCC theory. This leads to manifest size-extensivity and an intruder-free formulation. Our formalism provides a relaxed description of the nondynamical correlation in presence of dynamical correlation. Pilot numerical applications to doublet systems, e.g., potential energy surfaces for the first two excited (2)A' states of asymmetric H(2)S(+) ion and the ground (2)Σ(+)state of BeH radical are presented to assess the viability of our formalism over an wide range of nuclear geometries and the manifest avoidance of intruder state problem.

Comparative study of multireference perturbative theories for ground and excited states.

Three recently developed multireference perturbation theories (PTs)-generalized Van Vleck PT (GVVPT), state-specific multireference PT (SS-MRPT), and multiconfiguration PT (MCPT)-are briefly reviewed and compared numerically on representative examples, at the second order of approximations. We compute the dissociation potential curve of the LiH molecule and the BeH(2) system at various geometries, both in the ground and in the first excited singlet state. Furthermore, the ethylene twisting process is studied. Both Møller-Plesset (MP) and Epstein-Nesbet partition are used for MCPT and SS-MRPT, while GVVPT uses MP partitioning. An important thrust in our comparative study is to ascertain the degree of interplay of dynamical and nondynamical correlation for both ground and excited states. The same basis set and the same set of orbitals are used in all calculations to keep artifactual differences away when comparing the results. Nonparallelity error is used as a measure of the performance of the respective theories. Significant differences among the three methods appear when an intruder state is present. Additionally, difficulties arise (a) in MCPT when the choice of a pivot determinant becomes problematic, and (b) in SS-MRPT when there are small coefficients of the model function and there is implicit division by these coefficients, which generates a potential instability of the solutions. Ways to alleviate these latter shortcomings are suggested.