Basis set dependence of localized orbitals

The effects of Gaussian basis set contraction and addition of polarization functions on H₂O localized orbitals have been studied at the experimental geometry. It is shown that the electric moments and moment features of localized orbitals are not influenced very much by basis set quality variations, as going from medium size to enlarged basis sets. The difference between bond pair and lone pair charge densities was found to be larger on approaching the Hartree-Fock limit. A minimal basis set, however, does not suitably characterize the localized charge distributions.     

Translation of STO charge distributions

Barnett and Coulson's zeta-function method (M. P. Barnett and C. A. Coulson, Philos. Trans. R. Soc., Lond. A 1951, 243, 221) is one of the main sources of algorithms for the solution of multicenter integrals with Slater-type orbitals. This method is extended here from single functions to two-center charge distributions, which are expanded at a third center in terms of spherical harmonics times analytical radial factors. For s-s distributions, the radial factors are given by a series of factors corresponding to the translation of s-type orbitals. For distributions with higher quantum numbers, they are obtained from those of the s-s distributions by recurrence. After analyzing the convergence of the series, a computational algorithm is proposed and its practical efficiency is tested in three-center (AB/CC) repulsion integrals. In cases of large basis sets, the procedure yields about 12 correct significant figures with a computational cost of a few microseconds per integral.     

Cumulative atomic multipole representation of the molecular charge distribution and its basis set dependence

A simple procedure to decompose the theoretical molecular charge distribution into cumulative atomic multipoles supplementing any population analysis scheme has been described and tested for a number of molecules in extended basis sets. This approach may be applied to describe local charge distributions in neutral as well as charged systems and also leads to a simplified point-charge model conserving the local anisotropy of the atomic charge distribution in molecules. Such an approach may be useful in estimating intermolecular interactions, representing the molecular environment in solvent effect or enzyme catalytic activity studies, evaluation of molecular electrostatic potentials or tracing the quality of basis set functions.     

Generalized hybrid orbitals

A new set of generalized hybrid atomic orbitals is proposed for use in the theory of molecular electronic structure. The hybrids have conceptual and (when expanded in terms of Gaussian functions) computational advantages over conventional hybrids which are essentially adapted to spherically-symmetric environments. Formaldehyde is used to illustrate the use of these orbitals.     

Expansion of linear combinations of slater-type orbitals in eigenfunctions of the three-dimensional isotropic harmonic oscillator

Several classes of functions related to the Gaussian have been used with success as basis sets for the representation of atomic and molecular orbitals. We have compared the representation of a hydrogen 1s orbital by a sum of Gaussian lobe functions with its expansion in eigenfunctions of the three-dimensional isotropic harmonic oscillator. The lobe functions are shown to achieve better expectation values of the energy, with fewer terms. The lobe functions have the further computational advantage of not containing high powers of the radius. It is concluded that the lobe functions are a superior basis set for use in calculations of the electronic structure of atoms and molecules.     

Completeness criteria for explicitly correlated Gaussian geminal bases of axial symmetry

The completeness criteria for the basis set of explicitly correlated Gaussian-type geminals adapted to C_∞v symmetry are given. Specifically, we show that any pair function of Σ⁺ symmetry can be expanded in terms of products involving two spherical Gaussian orbitals located on the internuclear axis and a Gaussian correlating factor with a positive exponent. Pair functions corresponding to other irreducible representations of C_∞v can be expressed as linear combinations of products of a σ⁺ function and an angular factor depending on the azimuthal angles. The minimal set of the angular factors needed for completeness is given. These factors are relevant also for other explicitly correlated bases. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Efficiency of numerical basis sets for predicting the binding energies of hydrogen bonded complexes: evidence of small basis set superposition error compared to Gaussian basis sets

Binding energies of selected hydrogen bonded complexes have been calculated within the framework of density functional theory (DFT) method to discuss the efficiency of numerical basis sets implemented in the DFT code DMol3 in comparison with Gaussian basis sets. The corrections of basis set superposition error (BSSE) are evaluated by means of counterpoise method. Two kinds of different numerical basis sets in size are examined; the size of the one is comparable to Gaussian double zeta plus polarization function basis set (DNP), and that of the other is comparable to triple zeta plus double polarization functions basis set (TNDP). We have confirmed that the magnitudes of BSSE in these numerical basis sets are comparative to or smaller than those in Gaussian basis sets whose sizes are much larger than the corresponding numerical basis sets; the BSSE corrections in DNP are less than those in the Gaussian 6-311+G(3df,2pd) basis set, and those in TNDP are comparable to those in the substantially large scale Gaussian basis set aug-cc-pVTZ. The differences in counterpoise corrected binding energies between calculated using DNP and calculated using aug-cc-pVTZ are less than 9 kJ/mol for all of the complexes studied in the present work. The present results have shown that the cost effectiveness in the numerical basis sets in DMol3 is superior to that in Gaussian basis sets in terms of accuracy per computational cost.     

Three-center expansion of electron repulsion integrals with linear combination of atomic electron distributions

A new systematic way of constructing auxiliary basis functions for approximating the evaluation of electron repulsion integrals is proposed and applied to SCF and MCSCF wavefunction calculations. In the approximation, the one-electron density is expanded in terms of a linear combination of atomic electron distributions (LCAD), and the four-center two-electron repulsion integrals are reduced to the three- and two-center quantities. This results in a high-accuracy approximation as well as a large reduction in disk storage and input/output requirement, proportional to N³ rather than N⁴, N being the number of basis functions. Numerical results indicate that the error from the present approximation decreases as the size of molecular basis functions increases and that the LCAD version of MCSCF calculations requires only a fractional amount of the CPU time required in the conventional procedure without loss of accuracy.     

Effects of contraction and reduction of basis set size on the He2 interaction energy components

The effect of basis set contraction and elimination of primitive Gaussian orbitals on the He₂ interaction energy components have been studied within the SCF counterpoise corrected approach supplemented by a dispersion term calculated within the variation-perturbation scheme. Despite elimination of almost half of the primitive Gaussian functions from the saturated sp basis set and complete contraction of the remaining ones, the components of interaction energy in He₂ suffer a remarkably small loss of accuracy except for the short range charge transfer contribution.     

Molecular Nuclear Fields: A Naïve Perspective

A Gaussian function superposition is described in order to substitute the usual point charge approximation in molecular fixed frames. This procedure avoids the discontinuities at the nuclear positions which haunt first order density and EMP. Total first order density, made of the electronic and the Gaussian nuclear charge distributions, can be used to compute and compare molecular fields within quantum similarity techniques     

Explicitly correlated Gaussian calculations of the (2)D Rydberg states of the boron atom

Accurate non-relativistic variational calculations are performed for the seven lowest members of the (2)D Rydberg series (1s(2)2s2p(2), and 1s(2)2s(2)nd, n = 3, [ellipsis (horizontal)], 8) of the boron atom. The wave functions of the states are expanded in terms of all-electron explicitly correlated Gaussian basis functions and the effect of the finite nuclear mass is directly included in the calculations allowing for determining the isotopic shifts of the energy levels. The Gaussian basis is optimized independently for each state with the aid of the analytic energy gradient with respect to the Gaussian parameters. The calculations represent the highest accuracy level currently achievable for the considered states. The computed energies are compared with the available experimental data.     

Variational solution of the dirac equation within a multicentre basis set of gaussian functions

The Dirac equation for one-electron polynuclear systems is solved variationally within an analytical multicentre basis set. Each of the four components of the molecular spinor is expanded separately into a scalar basis set. The expansion coefficients are obtained from the variational principle. Calculations using gaussian functions are performed for hydrogen-like atoms and for hydrogen-ion-like molecules with constituents of nuclear charge Z = 1, 50 and 90.     

Properties of pyridine and pyrazine from ab initio molecular orbital wave functions

Various molecular properties have been calculated for pyridine and pyrazine from Gaussian lobe ab initio SCF molecular wave functions. Values are compared with available experimental data. In general, agreement is satisfactory with the exception of the rather sensitive asymmetry parameter of the quadrupole coupling tensor. The distributions of total electronic charge, and of selected molecular orbitals have been displayed as plots of the charge density contours in two dimensions.     

Universal systematic sequence of even-tempered Gaussian primitive functions in electronic correlation studies

The possibility of developing a universal systematic sequence of eventempered Gaussian primitive functions for atomic and molecular electronic structure studies is examined. The radial beryllium-like ions are used to demonstrate this approach both within the Hartree-Fock model and by including correlation effects. Correlation energies are computed using the diagrammatic many-body perturbation theory. The Hartree extrapolation procedure is used to obtain empirical upper bounds to the basis set limit and the procedure of Schmidt and Ruedenberg is employed to obtain empirical lower bounds for the basis set limit. The convergence properties of the calculations with respect to the size of the basis set are examined.     

Completely soft molecular electrostatic potentials (CoSMEP) and total density functions

Soft molecular electrostatic potentials (SMEP or SEMP) have been recently defined substituting the point-like proton by a Gaussian positive charge distribution. In the present paper an additional step is taken forward, transforming SMEP into a completely soft MEP (CoSMEP). Such transformation is carried out using a charge distributed proton as in SMEP and also a Gaussian positive nuclear charge distribution, instead of the classical point-like nuclear charges. The general form of MEP is roughly preserved, but new features can be noticed. Such new point of view is also associated to the possibility to redefine the molecular charge density. Definition of CoSMEP is thus connected to the definition of total molecular density functions (DF), where to the negative electronic DF is summed up the soft nuclear DF, made of linear combinations of Gaussian distributions of nuclear charges.     

Relativistic Gaussian functions for atoms by fitting numerical results with adaptive nonlinear least-square algorithm

The relativistic Gaussian basis set of Hg has been obtained by fitting the numerical relativistic atomic radial wave functions with the adaptive nonlinear least-square algorithm combined with the subset selection method. This fitting procedure and fitted results are presented. From this basis, in a further several-step procedure, we generated a new basis that gave reasonably good results for Hg, HgO, and a Se atom chain, respectively. The original fitted basis did not work, because the resulting overlap matrix was not positive definite. ©1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Comput Chem 20: 655–664, 1999     

Picture change error correction in the radial distributions of canonical orbital densities and total electron density of radon atom: the effect of the size of nucleus and the basis set limit

The 2nd order Douglas-Kroll-Hess (DKH2) and the Infinite Order Two Component (IOTC) radial distributions of electron density of canonical Hartree-Fock (HF) orbitals of radon atom are presented. Furthermore, the total electron density is revisited. The picture change error (PCE) correction is investigated by analytical means. The point charge model of nucleus and the Gaussian nucleus model are employed. The basis set is extrapolated by means of including tight s and also p Gaussians within the original triple zeta basis set. It is found that the DKH1 PCE corrected DKH2 total electron and s orbital contact densities are negative for the point charge model of nucleus if tight enough s Gaussians are included in the basis set. It is shown that this failure is caused due to the missing terms of the second order Douglas-Kroll transformation for the DKH2 electron density. PCE is found the most striking in the DKH2/IOTC electron density of s orbitals close to the nucleus. The radial distributions of the 2-component p _1/2 orbital densities are considerably affected by PCE at the nucleus as well. Furthermore, the PCE corrected DKH2/IOTC scalar p orbital densities have a non-zero value of electron density at nucleus and can be considered as an spin-orbit (SO) average of the p _1/2 and p _3/2 orbitals. The d and f orbitals are affected by PCE in the vicinity of the nucleus only little. The PCE corrected DKH2 and IOTC radial distributions of orbital densities are nodeless, which is completely in agreement with the radial distribution of the analytic or numeric DCH orbital densities.     

Physical nature of the chemical bond II. Valence atomic orbital and energy partitioning studies of linear nitriles

The valence atomic orbitals (VAO 's) of several linear nitriles are determined using non-empirical SCF –LCAO –MO wave functions expanded in a minimal (CN^?, HCN, FCN, C₂N₂), double-zeta (CN^?, HCN), or double-zeta + polarization (HCN) basis of Slater atomic orbitals (AO 's). The molecular energy of each system (except the double-zeta + polarization HCN system) is partitioned according to the procedure of Ruedenberg to obtain numerical values of nitrile C and N atomic and C?N bond components of the energy. In addition, the nitrile results are compared with minimal AO basis results obtained previously by other authors for homonuclear diatomics, diatomic hydrides and H₂O. The numerical data are used to test the internal self-consistency of the various definitions entering the partitioning method, i.e. whether or not analogous quantities assume similar values in chemically similar situations. The analysis of nitrile SCF –MO wave functions in terms of the set of VAO 's characteristic of the system under consideration is shown to be a promising approach to the problem of extracting useful information from the wave functions. In general, numerical results for the nitrile systems studied are fairly consistent with the concepts on which the partitioning method is based: promotion, quasi-classical interaction, sharing penetration, sharing interference and charge transfer. However, the VAO expansions for several energy components need to be investigated further and possibly revised.