An augmented effective core potential basis set for the calculation of molecular polarizabilities

Calculations of molecular polarizabilities require basis sets capable of accurately describing the responses of the electrons to an external perturbation. Unfortunately, basis sets that yield suitable quantitative results have traditionally been all-electron sets with large numbers of primitives, making their use computationally intractable even for moderately sized systems. We present a systematic augmentation of the effective core potential basis set of Stevens et al. [J Chem Phys 81, 12 (1984), Can J Chem 70, 612 (1992)] for 39 main group elements based on the procedure used to construct diffuse and polarization functions in the well-known Sadlej basis sets [Collec Czech Chem Comm 53, 1995 (1988)]. Representative calculations have been performed and we have shown that results to within 1% of all-electron calculations using the Sadlej basis set can be obtained for <1-35% of the computational cost using this new basis set.     

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.     

Systematic sequences of even-tempered Gaussian primitives in electron correlation studies using many-body perturbation theory

The use of systematic sequences of even-tempered Gaussian primitive functions in electron correlation studies using diagrammatic many-body perturbation theory is examined. The s limit electronic energy of the Be atom and the sp limit energy of the Ne atom have been computed as examples. The use of the Hartree extrapolation procedure to obtain empirical upper bounds for the basis set limit is investigated. The empirical lower bound for the basis set limit suggested by Schmidt and Ruedenberg is examined for calculations which include electron correlation.     

Au的乙炔配合物非线性光学性质的量子化学计算

对过渡金属Au的有机配合物Ph3PAuC≡CR (R＝C6H4OCH3, Ph, C6H4NO2和PyNO2)的极化率和一阶、二阶超极化率进行了量子化学计算. 构型在B3LYP/CEP-121G水平优化. 用有效模型势方法和二阶多体微扰方法分别考虑了相对论效应和电子相关效应. 对基组进行了慎重的选择, 以ECP-HYPOL基组为对照标准, 在LFK基组基础上简化得到一个较小的基组LFK2. 计算结果与实测结果趋势一致.     

Automatic algorithms for completeness‐optimization of Gaussian basis sets

We present the generic, object‐oriented C++ implementation of the completeness‐optimization approach (Manninen and Vaara, J. Comput. Chem. 2006, 27, 434) in the freely available ERKALE program, and recommend the addition of basis set stability scans to the completeness‐optimization procedure. The design of the algorithms is independent of the studied property, the used level of theory, as well as of the role of the optimized basis set: the procedure can be used to form auxiliary basis sets in a similar fashion. This implementation can easily be interfaced with various computer programs for the actual calculation of molecular properties for the optimization, and the calculations can be trivially parallelized. Routines for general and segmented contraction of the generated basis sets are also included. The algorithms are demonstrated for two properties of the argon atom—the total energy and the nuclear magnetic shielding constant—and they will be used in upcoming work for generation of cost‐efficient basis sets for various properties. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Improving numerical integration through basis set expansion

Calculations are presented to assess a theorem presented by S.F. Boys [(1969) Proc. R. Soc. A. 309:195], regarding the accuracy of numerical integration in quantum chemical calculations. The theorem states that the error due to numerical integration can be made proportional to the error due to basis set truncation, and thus goes to zero in the limit of a complete basis. We test this theorem on the hydrogen atom, showing that with a solution-spanning basis, the numerically exact orbital energy can indeed be calculated with a small number of integration points. Moreover, tests for H and H₂⁺ demonstrate that even when only a near-complete basis is employed, Boys Theorem can significantly reduce integration error. However, for other systems, like the oxygen atom and the CO₂ molecule, the theorem yields no advantage for some occupied orbitals. It is concluded that the theorem would be most useful for calculations that demand large basis sets.     

Linear dependence in Hylleraas configuration-interaction calculations of He atom

The explicitly-correlated basis sets are much easier to be linearly dependent than the product type bases constructed by one-electron orbitals due to the explicit inclusion of interelectronic coordinates in system wave functions. In this work, we apply Löwdin's canonical orthogonalization method to study the linearly dependent problems arising from the variational calculations based on Hylleraas configuration-interaction (Hy-CI) basis functions. Both the ground and excited states of He atom are calculated with increasingly large basis sets. Our results show that the linear dependence in Hy-CI basis sets can be successfully overcome by employing Löwdin's canonical orthogonalization method, yet without using extended higher-precision arithmetic in numerical implementations. Therefore, the computational effort can be reduced considerably. It is expected that the present method can be applied to other types of explicitly correlated basis functions.     

Intramolecular basis set superposition errors

The effects of intramolecular basis set superposition errors are less well documented than the corresponding intermolecular effects. The intramolecular basis set superposition errors are examined, using the approach of Jensen, for several basis sets developed by Pople and his co‐workers, which are widely used in studies of larger molecules. Prototype calculations are reported for the ground state of the water molecule using both the matrix Hartree–Fock method and the many‐body perturbation expansion for the correlation energy taken through second order. A similar investigation is carried out for some of the correlation consistent basis sets published by Dunning and his collaborators. Specifically, the following aspects are investigated: (i) the magnitude of the intramolecular basis set superposition error, (ii) the nonadditivity of intramolecular counterpoise corrections when applied in a pairwise fashion, and (iii) the use of multiple “ghost” centers. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Quant Chem 82: 282–292, 2001     

Can STO basis sets do a good job in evaluating molecular electromagnetic properties? II: Second hyperpolarizability of H<Subscript>2</Subscript>O,CH<Subscript>4</Subscript> and NH<Subscript>3</Subscript> according to the TDHF theory

The assessment of the performance of STO basis sets for the ab initio estimation of nonlinear electromagnetic response properties of molecules, using a Time Dependent Hartree-Fock procedure, has been extended from the first to the second dynamic hyperpolarizability of three bench polyatomics (H₂O, CH₄, NH₃). Calculations based on extended basis sets are reported and briefly discussed in order to provide a wider perspective on the existing comparisons.     

Tighter multipole-based integral estimates and parallel implementation of linear-scaling AO-MP2 theory

Within an atomic-orbital-based (AO-based) formulation of second-order M?ller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2), we present a novel screening procedure which allows us to preselect numerically significant two-electron integrals more efficiently, especially for large basis sets. The screening is based on our recently introduced multipole-based integral estimates (MBIE) method [J. Chem. Phys., 2005, 123, 184102], that allows to exploit the 1/R(4) or 1/R(6) coupling between electronic charge distributions in transformed integral products within AO-MP2. In this way, linear scaling is attained with fully-controlled numerical accuracy. Furthermore, a parallel implementation of our linear-scaling AO-MP2 method is described, which also allows us to perform calculations with larger basis sets. First calculations reveal that for e.g. linear alkanes the scaling of the number of required transformed integral products is almost equal for 6-31G* and cc-pVTZ basis sets. Using the improved MBIE screening, the largest parallel calculation was performed for a ribozyme fragment consisting of 497 atoms and 5697 basis functions, while our largest AO-MP2 calculation was performed for a stacked DNA system (16 base pairs) comprising 1052 atoms and 10 674 basis functions on a single processor.     

Medium-size polarized basis sets for high-level-correlated calculations of molecular electric properties

Summary The basis set polarization approach is employed for the generation of medium-size polarized GTO/CGTO basis sets for calculations of molecular dipole moments and polarizabilities. The excellent performance of the [13.10.4/7.5.2] GTO/CGTO polarized basis sets derived for Si through Cl is illustrated by the atomic polarizability results and SCF and MBPT data for dipole moments and polarizabilities of the second-row atom hydrides. The possible applications of the electric-property oriented polarized basis sets are discussed. The basis set data for Si through Cl are those for H and C through F append the paper.     

Accurate calculations of dynamic first hyperpolarizability: Construction of physically justified slater‐type basis sets

An efficient procedure for construction of physically rationalized Slater‐type basis sets for calculations of dynamic hyperpolarizability is proposed. Their performance is evaluated for the DFT level calculations for model molecules, carried out with a series of functionals. Advantages of new basis sets over standard d‐aug‐cc‐pVTZ and recently developed LPOL‐(FL,FS) Gaussian‐type basis sets are discussed. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A critical study of basis set effects and the use of approximate natural orbitals in SCF-CI calculations of molecular geometries and heats of reaction

SCF-CI calculations have been performed on a number of chemical reactions between closed shell molecules in order to determine the heats of reaction. Contracted Gaussian type atomic basis sets of three different qualities were used and the CI calculations were performed in a truncated approximate natural orbital space. The conclusions to be drawn from these calculations are rather pessimistic. For heats of reaction, errors up to 6 kcal/mole are obtained on the SCF-level with a double zeta plus polarization atomic basis. A further improvement is only possible if extended basis sets are used. Correlation effects on heats of reaction are of the same size and CI calculations are therefore only meaningful with large atomic basis sets.For the CI calculations a one-electron space of approximate natural orbitals, obtained from second order RS perturbation theory, was used. Different truncations, using the occupation number as criterion, were tested. The general conclusion is that errors in energy differences obtained with a truncated basis set are of the same magnitude as the error in the total correlation energy. In practice this means that not more than 20–30% of the approximate natural orbitals can be deleted if the error is to be kept less than a few kcal/mole.Finally the truncation error in calculations of bond distances was tested for a few cases. Errors of around 10% of the total change due to correlation were found when 30% of the lowest occupied natural orbitals were deleted.     

Finite-size scaling for critical conditions for stable quadrupole-bound anions

We present finite-size scaling calculations of the critical parameters for binding an electron to a finite linear quadrupole field. This approach gives very accurate results for the critical parameters by using a systematic expansion in a finite basis set. The model Hamiltonian consists of a charge Q located at the origin of the coordinates and k charges -Q/k located at distances R(i), i=1, em leader,k. After proper scaling of distances and energies, the rescaled Hamiltonian depends only on one free parameter q=QR. Two different linear charge configurations with q>0 and q<0 are studied using basis sets in both spherical and prolate spheroidal coordinates. For the case with q>0, the finite size scaling calculations give an extrapolated critical value of q(c)=1.469 70+/-0.000 05 a.u. by using a basis set with prolate spheroidal coordinates. For the quadrupole case with q<0, we obtained an extrapolated critical value of mid R:q(c)mid R:=3.982 51+/-0.000 01 a.u. for stable quadrupole bound anions. The corresponding critical exponent for the ground state energy alpha=1.9964+/-0.0005, with E approximately (q-q(c))(alpha).     

Revisiting the extrapolation of correlation energies to complete basis set limit

The extrapolation scheme of correlation energy is revisited to evaluate the complete basis set limit from double‐zeta (DZ) and triple‐zeta levels of calculations. The DZ level results are adjusted to the standard asymptotic behavior with respect to the cardinal number, observed at the higher levels of basis sets. Two types of adjusting schemes with effective scaling factors, which recover errors in extrapolations with the DZ level basis set, are examined. The first scheme scales the cardinal number for the DZ level energy, while the second scheme scales the prefactor of the extrapolation function. Systematic assessments on the Gaussian‐3X and Gaussian‐2 test sets reveal that these calibration schemes successfully and drastically reduce errors without additional computational efforts. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Performance of numerical atom‐centered basis sets in the ground‐state correlated calculations of noncovalent interactions: Water and methane dimer cases

Numerical atom‐centered basis sets (orbitals) (NAO) are known for their compactness and rapid convergence in the Hartree–Fock and density‐functional theory (DFT) molecular electronic‐structure calculations. To date, not much is known about the performance of the numerical sets against the well‐studied Gaussian‐type bases in correlated calculations. In this study, one instance of NAO [Blum et al., The Fritz Haber Institute ab initio Molecular Simulations Package (FHI‐aims), 2009] was thoroughly examined in comparison to the correlation‐consistent basis sets in the ground‐state correlated calculations on the hydrogen‐bonded water and dispersion‐dominated methane dimers. It was shown that these NAO demonstrate improved, comparing to the unaugmented correlation‐consistent based, convergence of interaction energies in correlated calculations. However, the present version of NAO constructed in the DFT calculations on covalently‐bound diatomics exhibits enormous basis‐set superposition error (BSSE)—even with the largest bases. Moreover, these basis sets are essentially unable to capture diffuse character of the wave function, necessary for example, for the complete convergence of correlated interaction energies of the weakly‐bound complexes. The problem is usually treated by addition of the external Gaussian diffuse functions to the NAO part, what indeed allows to obtain accurate results. However, the operation increases BSSE with the resulting hybrid basis sets even further and breaks down the initial concept of NAO (i.e., improved compactness) due to the significant increase in their size. These findings clearly point at the need in the alternative strategies for the construction of sufficiently‐delocalized and BSSE‐balanced purely‐numerical bases adapted for correlated calculations, possible ones were outlined here. For comparison with the considered NAOs, a complementary study on the convergence properties of the correlation‐consistent basis sets, with a special emphasis on BSSE, was also performed. Some of its conclusions may represent independent interest. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Estimating the Hartree—Fock limit from finite basis set calculations

It is demonstrated that the polarization-consistent basis sets, which are optimized for density functional methods, are also suitable for Hartree–Fock calculations, and can be used for estimating the Hartree–Fock basis set limit to within a few micro-hartree accuracy. Various two- and three-point extrapolation schemes are tested and exponential functions are found to be superior compared to functions depending on the inverse power of the highest angular momentum function in the basis set. Total energies can be improved by roughly an order of magnitude, but atomization energies are only marginally improved by extrapolation.     

Reaction energy benchmarks of hydrocarbon combustion by Gaussian basis and plane wave basis approaches

The reaction energies of 275 elementary reactions from the hydrocarbon combustion model GRI-Mech 3.0 were evaluated by electronic structure calculations using both localized Gaussian basis and plane wave basis sets. In the Gaussian basis calculations, the d-polarization function on C, N, and O elements reduces the mean absolute deviation (MAD) from the experimental value by 53%, a significant improvement in computational accuracy. In the plane wave basis calculation using different exchange-correlation (XC) functionals, the MAD values were 0.316–0.426 eV when non-hybrid type XC functionals such as RPBE, PBE, PW91, revPBE, and PBEsol were used. On the other hand, hybrid functionals like B3LYP and HSE06 reduced the MAD values significantly down to 0.182 and 0.233 eV, respectively. The B3LYP results have 49% less MAD compared to the PBE results. These demonstrated the strong advantage of the hybrid functional for calculating gas-phase reaction energies. The present comprehensive benchmarks will be crucial for future microkinetics as well as machine learning studies on the catalytic reactions. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Finite-field many-body perturbation theory. Calculations of the dipole polarizability of the fluoride ion using electric-field-variant gaussian-type orbitals

The dipole polarizability of the fluoride ion, F^–, is calculated using finite-field many-body perturbation theory. The use of electric-field-variant basis sets in such calculations is investigated. Scaling of the zero-order Hamiltonian and the formation of Padé approximants are considered. Empirical and theoretical estimates of the polarizability of F^– are compared.Science Research Council Advanced Fellow.     

Relativistic atomic natural orbital type basis sets for the alkaline and alkaline-earth atoms applied to the ground-state potentials for the corresponding dimers

New basis sets of the atomic natural orbital (ANO) type have been developed for the atoms Li–Fr and Be–Ra. The ANOs have been obtained from the average density matrix of the ground states and the lowest excited states of the atom, the positive ion, and the dimer at its equilibirium geometry. Scalar realtivisitc effects are included through the use of a Douglas–Kroll Hamiltonian. Multiconfigurational wave functions have been used with dynamic correlation included using second-order perturbation theory (CASSCF/CASPT2). The basis sets are applied in calculations of the ground-state potentials for the dimers. Computed bond energies are accurate to within 0.05 eV for the alkaline dimers and 0.02 eV for the alkaline-earth dimers (except for Be₂).Acknowledgments.ensp;B.O.R. would like to express his gratitude to Prof. Jacopo Tomasi for all the inspiration that his scientific work has given him through the years and continues to do in particular through the work on solvent effects on molecular properties. This work has been supported by a grant from the Swedish Science Research Council, VR.Contribution to the Jacopo Tomasi Honorary Issue