Attractive electron–electron interactions within robust local fitting approximations

An analysis of Dunlap's robust fitting approach reveals that the resulting two‐electron integral matrix is not manifestly positive semidefinite when local fitting domains or non‐Coulomb fitting metrics are used. We present a highly local approximate method for evaluating four‐center two‐electron integrals based on the resolution‐of‐the‐identity (RI) approximation and apply it to the construction of the Coulomb and exchange contributions to the Fock matrix. In this pair‐atomic resolution‐of‐the‐identity (PARI) approach, atomic‐orbital (AO) products are expanded in auxiliary functions centered on the two atoms associated with each product. Numerical tests indicate that in 1% or less of all Hartree–Fock and Kohn–Sham calculations, the indefinite integral matrix causes nonconvergence in the self‐consistent‐field iterations. In these cases, the two‐electron contribution to the total energy becomes negative, meaning that the electronic interaction is effectively attractive, and the total energy is dramatically lower than that obtained with exact integrals. In the vast majority of our test cases, however, the indefiniteness does not interfere with convergence. The total energy accuracy is comparable to that of the standard Coulomb‐metric RI method. The speed‐up compared with conventional algorithms is similar to the RI method for Coulomb contributions; exchange contributions are accelerated by a factor of up to eight with a triple‐zeta quality basis set. A positive semidefinite integral matrix is recovered within PARI by introducing local auxiliary basis functions spanning the full AO product space, as may be achieved by using Cholesky‐decomposition techniques. Local completion, however, slows down the algorithm to a level comparable with or below conventional calculations. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Basis set convergence studies of Hartree-Fock calculations of molecular properties within the resolution of the identity approximation

Within the resolution of the identity (RI) method, the convergence of the Hartree-Fock (HF) total molecular energy and the multipole moments in the course of the combined regular expansion of the molecular and auxiliary (RI) basis sets is studied. Dunning's cc-pVXZ series is used for both the molecular and the RI basis sets. The results show the calculated quantities converge to the HF limit when both the molecular and the RI basis sets are expanded from correlation-consistent polarized valence double zeta to correlation-consistent polarized valence sextuple zeta. Combinations of molecular/RI basis sets sufficient for convergence of the total energy and of the multipole moments at various accuracy levels have been determined. A measure of the RI basis set incompleteness is suggested and discussed. As it is significantly faster than the standard HF algorithm for small and midsize molecules, the RI-HF method, together with appropriate expanding series of both molecular and RI basis sets, provide an efficient tool to estimate and control the error of the Hartree-Fock calculations due to the finite basis set.     

Parallel DFT gradients using the Fourier Transform Coulomb method

The recently described Fourier Transform Coulomb (FTC) algorithm for fast and accurate calculation of Density Functional Theory (DFT) gradients (Füsti-Molnar, J Chem Phys 2003, 119, 11080) has been parallelized. We present several calculations showing the speed and accuracy of our new parallel FTC gradient code, comparing its performance with our standard DFT code. For that part of the total derivative Coulomb potential that can be evaluated in plane wave space, the current parallel FTC gradient algorithm is up to 200 times faster in total than our classical all-integral algorithm, depending on the system size and basis set, with essentially no loss in accuracy. Proposed modifications should further improve the overall performance relative to the classical algorithm.     

Accurate Coulomb-fitting basis sets for H to Rn

A series of auxiliary basis sets to fit Coulomb potentials for the elements H to Rn (except lanthanides) is presented. For each element only one auxiliary basis set is needed to approximate Coulomb energies in conjunction with orbital basis sets of split valence, triple zeta valence and quadruple zeta valence quality with errors of typically below ca. 0.15 kJ mol(-1) per atom; this was demonstrated in conjunction with the recently developed orbital basis sets of types def2-SV(P), def2-TZVP and def2-QZVPP for a large set of small molecules representing (nearly) each element in all of its common oxidation states. These auxiliary bases are slightly more than three times larger than orbital bases of split valence quality. Compared to non-approximated treatments, computation times for the Coulomb part are reduced by a factor of ca. 8 for def2-SV(P) orbital bases, ca. 25 for def2-TZVP and ca. 100 for def2-QZVPP orbital bases.     

Optimized accurate auxiliary basis sets for RI-MP2 and RI-CC2 calculations for the atoms Rb to Rn

The introduction of the resolution-of-the-identity (RI) approximation for electron repulsion integrals in quantum chemical calculations requires in addition to the orbital basis so-called auxiliary or fitting basis sets. We report here such auxiliary basis sets optimized for second-order Møller–Plesset perturbation theory for the recently published (Weigend and Ahlrichs Phys Chem Chem Phys, 2005, 7, 3297–3305) segmented contracted Gaussian basis sets of split, triple-ζ and quadruple-ζ valence quality for the atoms Rb–Rn (except lanthanides). These basis sets are designed for use in connection with small-core effective core potentials including scalar relativistic corrections. Hereby accurate resolution-of-the-identity calculations with second-order Møller–Plesset perturbation theory (MP2) and related methods can now be performed for molecules containing elements from H to Rn. The error of the RI approximation has been evaluated for a test set of 385 small and medium sized molecules, which represent the common oxidation states of each element, and is compared with the one-electron basis set error, estimated based on highly accurate explicitly correlated MP2–R12 calculations. With the reported auxiliary basis sets the RI error for MP2 correlation energies is typically two orders of magnitude smaller than the one-electron basis set error, independent on the position of the atoms in the periodic table.     

Poisson-transformed density fitting in relativistic four-component Dirac-Kohn-Sham theory

We present recent developments in the implementation of the density fitting approach for the Coulomb interaction within the four-component formulation of relativistic density functional theory [Belpassi et al., J. Chem. Phys. 124, 124104 (2006)]. In particular, we make use of the Poisson equation to generate suitable auxiliary basis sets and simplify the electron repulsion integrals [Manby and Knowles, Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 163001 (2001)]. We propose a particularly simple and efficient method for the generation of accurate Poisson auxiliary basis sets, based on already available standard Coulomb fitting sets. Just as is found in the nonrelativistic case, we show that the number of standard auxiliary fitting functions that need to be added to the Poisson-generated functions in order to achieve a fitting accuracy equal or, in some cases, better than that of the standard procedure is remarkably small. The efficiency of the present implementation is demonstrated in a detailed study of the spectroscopic properties and energetics of several gold containing systems, including the Au dimer and the CsAu molecule. The extraction reaction of a H(2)O molecule from a Au(H(2)O)(9) (+) cluster is also calculated as an example of mixed heavy-light-atom molecular systems. The scaling behavior of the algorithm implemented is illustrated for some closed shell gold clusters up to Au(5) (+). The increased sparsity of the Coulomb matrices involved in the Poisson fitting is identified, as are potential computational applications and the use of the Poisson fitting for the relativistic exchange-correlation problem.     

RI-MP2: first derivatives and global consistency

The evaluation of RI-MP2 first derivatives with respect to nuclear coordinates or with respect to an external electric field is described. The prefix RI indicates the use of an approximate resolution of identity in the Hilbert space of interacting charge distributions (Coulomb metric), i.e., the use of an auxiliary basis set to approximate charge distributions. The RI technique is applied to first derivatives of the MP2 correlation energy expression while the (restricted) Hartree-Fock reference is treated in the usual way. Computational savings by a factor of 10 over conventional approaches are demonstrated in an application to porphyrin. It is shown that the RI approximation to MP2 derivatives does not entail any significant loss in accuracy. Finally, the relative energetic stabilities of a representative sample of closed-shell molecules built from first and second row elements have been investigated by the RI-MP2 approach, and thus it is tested whether such properties that refer to potential energy hypersurfaces in a more global way can be described with similar consistency to the more locally defined derivatives. Received: 17 December 1996 / Accepted: 27 March 1997     

Accurate description of van der Waals complexes by density functional theory including empirical corrections

An empirical method to account for van der Waals interactions in practical calculations with the density functional theory (termed DFT-D) is tested for a wide variety of molecular complexes. As in previous schemes, the dispersive energy is described by damped interatomic potentials of the form C6R(-6). The use of pure, gradient-corrected density functionals (BLYP and PBE), together with the resolution-of-the-identity (RI) approximation for the Coulomb operator, allows very efficient computations for large systems. Opposed to previous work, extended AO basis sets of polarized TZV or QZV quality are employed, which reduces the basis set superposition error to a negligible extend. By using a global scaling factor for the atomic C6 coefficients, the functional dependence of the results could be strongly reduced. The "double counting" of correlation effects for strongly bound complexes is found to be insignificant if steep damping functions are employed. The method is applied to a total of 29 complexes of atoms and small molecules (Ne, CH4, NH3, H2O, CH3F, N2, F2, formic acid, ethene, and ethine) with each other and with benzene, to benzene, naphthalene, pyrene, and coronene dimers, the naphthalene trimer, coronene. H2O and four H-bonded and stacked DNA base pairs (AT and GC). In almost all cases, very good agreement with reliable theoretical or experimental results for binding energies and intermolecular distances is obtained. For stacked aromatic systems and the important base pairs, the DFT-D-BLYP model seems to be even superior to standard MP2 treatments that systematically overbind. The good results obtained suggest the approach as a practical tool to describe the properties of many important van der Waals systems in chemistry. Furthermore, the DFT-D data may either be used to calibrate much simpler (e.g., force-field) potentials or the optimized structures can be used as input for more accurate ab initio calculations of the interaction energies.     

Electron density fitting for the Coulomb problem in relativistic density-functional theory

A density fitting approach for the Coulomb matrix representation within the four-component formulation of relativistic density-functional theory is presented. Our implementation, which uses G-spinor basis sets, shares all the advantages of those found in nonrelativistic quantum chemistry. We show that very accurate Coulomb energies may be obtained using a modest number of scalar auxiliary basis functions for molecules containing heavy atoms. The efficiency of this new implementation is demonstrated in a detailed study of the spectroscopic properties of the gold dimer, and its scaling behavior has been tested by calculations of some closed-shell gold clusters (Au2, Au3+, Au4, Au5+). The algorithm is found to scale as O(N3), just as it does in the nonrelativistic case, and represents a dramatic improvement in efficiency over the conventional approach in the calculation of the Coulomb matrix, with computation times that are reduced to less than 3% for Au2 and up to 1% in the case of Au5+.     

Efficient evaluation of short-range Hartree-Fock exchange in large molecules and periodic systems

We present an efficient algorithm for the evaluation of short-range Hartree-Fock exchange energies and geometry gradients in Gaussian basis sets. Our method uses a hierarchy of screening levels to eliminate negligible two-electron integrals whose evaluation is the fundamental computational bottleneck of the procedure. By applying our screening technique to the Heyd-Scuseria-Ernzerhof [J. Chem. Phys. 118, 8207 (2003)] short-range Coulomb hybrid density functional, we achieve a computational efficiency comparable with that of standard nonhybrid density functional calculations.     

Analytical time-dependent density functional derivative methods within the RI-J approximation, an approach to excited states of large molecules

Time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) is now well established as an efficient method for molecular excited state treatments. In this work, we introduce the resolution of the identity approximation for the Coulomb energy (RI-J) to excited state gradient calculations. In combination with nonhybrid functionals, the RI-J approximation leads to speed ups in total timings of an order of magnitude compared to the conventional method; this is demonstrated for oligothiophenes with up to 40 monomeric units and adamantane clusters. We assess the accuracy of the computed adiabatic excitation energies, excited state structures, and vibrational frequencies on a set of 36 excited states. The error introduced by the RI-J approximation is found to be negligible compared to deficiencies of standard basis sets and functionals. Auxiliary basis sets optimized for ground states are suitable for excited state calculations with small modifications. In conclusion, the RI-J approximation significantly extends the scope of applications of analytical TDDFT derivative methods in photophysics and photochemistry.     

Two-electron integral evaluation for uncontracted geometrical-type Gaussian functions

A new algorithm for efficient evaluation of two-electron repulsion integrals (ERIs) using uncontracted geometrical-type Gaussian basis functions is presented. Integrals are evaluated by the Habitz and Clementi method. The use of uncontracted geometrical basis sets allows grouping of basis functions into shells (s, sp, spd, or spdf) and processing of integrals in blocks (shell quartets). By utilizing information common to a block of integrals, this method achieves high efficiency. This technique has been incorporated into the KGNMOL molecular interaction program. Representative timings for a number of molecules with different basis sets are presented. The new code is found to be significantly faster than the previous program. For ERIs involving only s and p functions, the new algorithm is a factor of two faster than previously. The new program is also found to be competitive when compared with other standard molecular packages, such as HONDO-8 and Gaussian 86.     

An improved algorithm for analytical gradient evaluation in resolution-of-the-identity second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory: application to alanine tetrapeptide conformational analysis

We present a new algorithm for analytical gradient evaluation in resolution‐of‐the‐identity second‐order Møller‐Plesset perturbation theory (RI‐MP2) and thoroughly assess its computational performance and chemical accuracy. This algorithm addresses the potential I/O bottlenecks associated with disk‐based storage and access of the RI‐MP2 t‐amplitudes by utilizing a semi‐direct batching approach and yields computational speed‐ups of approximately 2–3 over the best conventional MP2 analytical gradient algorithms. In addition, we attempt to provide a straightforward guide to performing reliable and cost‐efficient geometry optimizations at the RI‐MP2 level of theory. By computing relative atomization energies for the G3/99 set and optimizing a test set of 136 equilibrium molecular structures, we demonstrate that satisfactory relative accuracy and significant computational savings can be obtained using Pople‐style atomic orbital basis sets with the existing auxiliary basis expansions for RI‐MP2 computations. We also show that RI‐MP2 geometry optimizations reproduce molecular equilibrium structures with no significant deviations (>0.1 pm) from the predictions of conventional MP2 theory. As a chemical application, we computed the extended‐globular conformational energy gap in alanine tetrapeptide at the extrapolated RI‐MP2/cc‐pV(TQ)Z level as 2.884, 4.414, and 4.994 kcal/mol for structures optimized using the HF, DFT (B3LYP), and RI‐MP2 methodologies and the cc‐pVTZ basis set, respectively. These marked energetic discrepancies originate from differential intramolecular hydrogen bonding present in the globular conformation optimized at these levels of theory and clearly demonstrate the importance of long‐range correlation effects in polypeptide conformational analysis. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem, 2007     

Cholesky decomposition of the two-electron integral matrix in electronic structure calculations

A standard Cholesky decomposition of the two-electron integral matrix leads to integral tables which have a huge number of very small elements. By neglecting these small elements, it is demonstrated that the recursive part of the Cholesky algorithm is no longer a bottleneck in the procedure. It is shown that a very efficient algorithm can be constructed when family type basis sets are adopted. For subsequent calculations, it is argued that two-electron integrals represented by Cholesky integral tables have the same potential for simplifications as density fitting. Compared to density fitting, a Cholesky decomposition of the two-electron matrix is not subjected to the problem of defining an auxiliary basis for obtaining a fixed accuracy in a calculation since the accuracy simply derives from the choice of a threshold for the decomposition procedure. A particularly robust algorithm for solving the restricted Hartree-Fock (RHF) equations can be speeded up if one has access to an ordered set of integral tables. In a test calculation on a linear chain of beryllium atoms, the advocated RHF algorithm nicely converged, but where the standard direct inversion in iterative space method converged very slowly to an excited state.     

A quality test for the Hartree-Fock-Roothaan SCF wave functions

A quality test for the SCF wave function based on separate examination of the one- and two-electron contributions to the total energy is proposed. The test is applied to 12 different STO basis sets for the ground state of the Ni atom and its predictions compared with those deduced for the minimization of the total energy. The new test allows for a reduction in the cancellation of errors detected in some applications of the standard SCF procedure. Some relations between the quality of the basis set and its size and structure are discussed.     

Efficient and accurate approximations to the molecular spin-orbit coupling operator and their use in molecular g-tensor calculations

Approximations to the Breit-Pauli form of the spin-orbit coupling (SOC) operator are examined. The focus is on approximations that lead to an effective quasi-one-electron operator which leads to efficient property evaluations. In particular, the accurate spin-orbit mean-field (SOMF) method developed by Hess, Marian, Wahlgren, and Gropen is examined in detail. It is compared in detail with the "effective potential" spin-orbit operator commonly used in density functional theory (DFT) and which has been criticized for not including the spin-other orbit (SOO) contribution. Both operators contain identical one-electron and Coulomb terms since the SOO contribution to the Coulomb term vanishes exactly in the SOMF treatment. Since the DFT correlation functional only contributes negligibly to the SOC the only difference between the two operators is in the exchange part. In the SOMF approximation, the SOO part is equal to two times the spin-same orbit contribution. The DFT exchange contribution is of the wrong sign and numerically shown to be in error by a factor of 2-2.5 in magnitude. The simplest possible improvement in the DFT-SOC treatment [Veff(-2X)-SOC] is to multiply the exchange contribution to the Veff operator by -2. This is verified numerically in calculations of molecular g-tensors and one-electron SOC constants of atoms and ions. Four different ways of handling the computationally critical Coulomb part of the SOMF and Veff operators are discussed and implemented. The resolution of the identity approximation is virtually exact for the SOC with standard auxiliary basis sets which need to be slightly augmented by steep s functions for heavier elements. An almost as efficient seminumerical approximation is equally accurate. The effective nuclear charge model gives results within approximately 10% (on average) of the SOMF treatment. The one-center approximation to the Coulomb and one-electron SOC terms leads to errors on the order of approximately 5%. Small absolute errors are obtained for the one-center approximation to the exchange term which is consequently the method of choice [SOMF(1X)] for large molecules.     

Intermolecular electrostatic energies using density fitting

A method is presented to calculate the electron-electron and nuclear-electron intermolecular Coulomb interaction energy between two molecules by separately fitting the unperturbed molecular electron density of each monomer. This method is based on the variational Coulomb fitting method which relies on the expansion of the ab initio molecular electron density in site-centered auxiliary basis sets. By expanding the electron density of each monomer in this way the integral expressions for the intermolecular electrostatic calculations are simplified, lowering the operation count as well as the memory usage. Furthermore, this method allows the calculation of intermolecular Coulomb interactions with any level of theory from which a one-electron density matrix can be obtained. Our implementation is initially tested by calculating molecular properties with the density fitting method using three different auxiliary basis sets and comparing them to results obtained from ab initio calculations. These properties include dipoles for a series of molecules, as well as the molecular electrostatic potential and electric field for water. Subsequently, the intermolecular electrostatic energy is tested by calculating ten stationary points on the water dimer potential-energy surface. Results are presented for electron densities obtained at four different levels of theory using two different basis sets, fitted with three auxiliary basis sets. Additionally, a one-dimensional electrostatic energy surface scan is performed for four different systems (H2O dimer, Mg2+-H2O, Cu+-H2O, and n-methyl-formamide dimer). Our results show a very good agreement with ab initio calculations for all properties as well as interaction energies.     

Low‐memory iterative density fitting

A new low‐memory modification of the density fitting approximation based on a combination of a continuous fast multipole method (CFMM) and a preconditioned conjugate gradient solver is presented. Iterative conjugate gradient solver uses preconditioners formed from blocks of the Coulomb metric matrix that decrease the number of iterations needed for convergence by up to one order of magnitude. The matrix‐vector products needed within the iterative algorithm are calculated using CFMM, which evaluates them with the linear scaling memory requirements only. Compared with the standard density fitting implementation, up to 15‐fold reduction of the memory requirements is achieved for the most efficient preconditioner at a cost of only 25% increase in computational time. The potential of the method is demonstrated by performing density functional theory calculations for zeolite fragment with 2592 atoms and 121,248 auxiliary basis functions on a single 12‐core CPU workstation. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Accuracy and efficiency of atomic basis set methods versus plane wave calculations with ultrasoft pseudopotentials for DNA base molecules

Recent results from Preuss et al. (J Comput Chem 2004, 25, 112) on DNA base molecules, obtained by plane wave density functional calculations using ultrasoft pseudopotentials, are compared with calculations using Gaussian basis sets. Bond lengths and angles agree closely, but dihedral angles and vibrational frequencies show significant differences. The Gaussian basis calculations are at least an order of magnitude more efficient than the plane wave/ultrasoft pseudopotential calculations at a similar level of accuracy; the advantage is even larger if the Fourier Transform Coulomb method is used. To obtain definite benchmark values, the geometries of the four DNA bases were optimized at the MP2 level with large basis sets, up to cc-pVQZ and aug-cc-pVTZ.