An analysis of the topology of the electron charge density and the reactant–product electronic structure variation along the intrinsic reaction coordinate

In this work the topology of the electron charge density and the variations in the reactant and product electronic structures are analyzed along the Fukui intrinsic reaction coordinate (IRC). The systems studied are the ionic and the Menschutkin S_N2 reactions. This study is performed at ab initio RHF and MP2 levels, and density functional level, employing the B3LYP functional. The basis set in all cases is of split valence type and includes diffuse and polarization functions in nonhydrogen atoms 6‐31+G*. As a measure of the variations of reactant and product electronic structures, we calculate at the RHF level, the overlap integral between the total wavefunction and the wavefunction based on the reactant (or product) localized fragment orbitals. This integral can be interpreted, in Hilbert space, as the cosine of the angle between the vector representing the electronic structure of the molecule in each point of the IRC and that of reactant (or product) electronic structure. The calculated molecular properties were analyzed in light of the valence bond approach, and qualitative differences were noted depending on the property studied. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2001     

The ring opening of cyclopropylidene to allene and the isomerization of allene:ab initio interpretation of the electronic rearrangements in terms of quasi-atomic orbitals

Summary A full optimized reaction space (FORS) remains invariant under arbitrary orthogonal transformations among its configuration-generating molecular orbitals. Localization of the latter for a FORS wavefunction yields molecular orbitals withquasi-atomic character which can be interpreted asmolecule-adapted minimal-basis-set atomic orbitals. In terms of these quasi-atomic FORS MOs, the configuration mixing in the FORS wavefunction, the representation of the density matrix, and the expansions of the natural orbitals provide information about the interactions that are responsible for the molecular energy changes. A basis-set-independent population analysis can be formulated which accomplishes the objectives of Mulliken's population analysis without the drawbacks stemming from the basis-set dependence of the latter. Through application of these procedures, explanations can be found for various features of the potential energy surface governing the ring opening of cyclopropylidene and the isomerization of allene.Operated for the U.S. Department of Energy by Iowa State University under contract No. 7405-ENG-82. This work was supported by the Office of Basic Energy Sciences     

The Fock Matrix Analysis for Atomic Orbitals in Molecular Orbitals II. The Electronic Structure of N2 Molecules

Weinhold's natural hybrid orbitals can be chosen as the molecular adapted atomic orbitals to build the canonical molecular orbitals of N₂ molecules. The molecular Fock matrix expanded in the natural hybrid orbitals can reveal deeper insight of the electronic structure and reaction of the N₂ molecule. For example, the magnitude of F_ab can signify the bonding character of the paired electrons as well as the diradical character of the unpaired electrons for both σ‐ and π‐types. Discarding the concept of the overlap between non‐orthogonal atomic orbitals, the different orbitals for different spins in the unrestricted Hartree‐Fock wavefunction reveal that there are three pairs of opposite spin density flows between two atoms, which proceed until the bonding molecular orbitals form.     

Natural Bond Orbital Study on the Nature of Binding in the H2 Molecule

We use the natural bond orbital (NBO) method to decompose a MO wavefunction into the intuitive valence bond (VB) structures. At least two natural orbital type MO are required to describe the essential binding of the H₂ molecule at all inter nuclear distances. At first the MO wavefunction is transformed into an unrestricted Hartree-Fock wave-function consisted of non-orthogonal localized orbitals u' and v', and then the NBO method is used to decompose u' and v' into the physical meaningful orthogonal localized orbitals. Our results show that the orbitals u' and v' are decomposed into an atomic and an overlap parts. The latter part gives rise to the conventional ionic structure in the VB picture.     

Efficient generation of Heisenberg Hamiltonian matrices for VB calculations of potential energy surfaces

The spin‐Hamiltonian valence bond theory relies upon covalent configurations formed by singly occupied orbitals differing by their spin counterparts. This theory has been proven to be successful in studying potential energy surfaces of the ground and lowest excited states in organic molecules when used as a part of the hybrid molecular mechanics—valence bond method. The method allows one to consider systems with large active spaces formed by n electrons in n orbitals and relies upon a specially proposed graphical unitary group approach. At the same time, the restriction of the equality of the numbers of electrons and orbitals in the active space is too severe: it excludes from the consideration a lot of interesting applications. We can mention here carbocations and systems with heteroatoms. Moreover, the structure of the method makes it difficult to study charge‐transfer excited states because they are formed by ionic configurations. In the present work we tackle these problems by significant extension of the spin‐Hamiltonian approach. We consider (i) more general active space formed by n ± m electrons in n orbitals and (ii) states with the charge transfer. The main problem addressed is the generation of Hamiltonian matrices for these general cases. We propose a scheme combining operators of electron exchange and hopping, generating all nonzero matrix elements step‐by‐step. This scheme provides a very efficient way to generate the Hamiltonians, thus extending the applicability of spin‐Hamiltonian valence bond theory. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2009     

On the implicit bond-dependency origins of bridge interactions

The indirect (through-bridge) components of chemical interactions between atomic orbitals (AO) are shown to originate from the indirect dependencies between AO due to the orbital intermediaries in the bond system of the molecule. They are expressed in terms of the bridge-coupling elements of the density matrix via the chain rule transformation of the implicit derivatives between the indirectly bonded AO in the molecular bond system. The elements of the charge-and-bond-order (CBO) matrix are interpreted as the canonical derivatives between the AO-projections onto the bond subspace combining the occupied Molecular Orbitals (MO). The chain-rule manipulations are then used to express the scattering amplitudes via AO intermediaries in terms of the relevant elements of the CBO matrix. The squares of such amplitudes are related to the Wiberg-type indirect bond components, which complement the familiar direct Wiberg bond-order contributions. The interference implications of the probability scatterings via the multiple cascades involving all basis functions are examined. These probability propagations are shown to preserve the stationary conditional probabilities of the underlying molecular communication channel in AO resolution.     

Comparative studies on a maximum bond order principle

A recently proposed maximum bond order principle is studied with respect to choice of basis orbitals, choice of wavefunction and compared with other methods. Results for bond orders support the choice of Schmidt orthogonalized AO's with subsequent Löwdin orthogonalization. Differences between semiempirical andab initio wavefunctions in minimal basis sets usually have only minor effects on bond order values. For hydrocarbons bond order values are quite similar for Cohen's and this method. Finally, the dependence of bond orders on internal rotation and vibration is investigated in a few simple cases.     

Ab initio calculation of maximum bond order hybrid orbitals

Summary The maximum bond order hybrid orbital (MBOHO) procedure is tested onab initio level by use of the density matrix in Löwdin orthogonalized atomic orbital basis. The direct MBOHO calculation based on the whole density matrix includes also the hybridization of the inner atomic orbitals, and the MBOHO calculation based on the valence orbital part of the density matrix considers only the hybridization of the valence atomic orbitals. The concrete MBOHO calculations based on theab initio calculation with STO-3G basis show that the components of the s atomic orbitals in MBOHOs and the maximum bond orders obtained from the two kinds of MBOHO calculations are very close to each other, and that the two kinds of MBOHOs all have the excellent correlativity with the nuclear spin-spin coupling constants.The project supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Excellent Young University Teacher's Foundation of State Education Commission of China.     

Transferable integrals in a deformation-density approach to crystal orbital calculations. II

A new method for calculating crystal orbitals in the Hartree-Fock-Slater approximation is proposed. The method makes use of x-ray crystallographic measurements of the deformation density, and uses transferable integrals to treat the neutral–atom potentials. Methods for evaluating matrix elements of neutral-atom potentials are discussed in detail, and in this connection, expansions of displaced Slater-type orbitals in terms of modified spherical Bessel functions and Legendre polynomials are presented. Tables of transferable integrals (moments of the neutral-atom potentials) are given for all the elements up to Z = 36, and tables of Fourier transforms of the neutral-atom potentials are also presented.     

Interatomic and intraatomic analysis of the density matrix: applications to chlorobenzenes

Bond orders and valence indices have been evaluated employing Mayer’s definitions with orthogonalized atomic orbitals (OAO) obtained from L?wdin orthogonalization over an STO-3G basis set in anab initio formalism. It has been observed that the eigenvalues of the submatrices associated with bond order orbitals. natural hybrid orbitals and natural bond orbitals also reproduce the same values of the bond orders and the valence indices which in turn are quite close to the classical values. Bond orders obtained by a similarity transformation of theab initio density matrix differ appreciably in numerical magnitude.     

Multi-configuration Hartree-Fock theory with non-orthogonal orbitals

A general version of the multi-configuration Hartree—Fock method is elaborated. An N-electron wavefunction is approximated as a linear combination of configurations which are constructed from space orbitals which are divided into disjoint subsets, with elements of the same subset being kept orthonormal. The pseudo-eigenvalue problem is obtained and application of the method to the lowest ²S state of Li is carried out.     

Berry phase approach to longitudinal dipole moments of infinite chains in electronic-structure methods with local basis sets

The authors provide a reformulation of the modern theory of polarization for one-dimensional stereoregular polymers, at the level of the single determinant Hartree-Fock and Kohn-Sham methods within a basis set of local orbitals. By starting with localization of one-electron orbitals, their approach naturally arrives to the Berry phases of Bloch orbitals. Then they describe a novel numerical algorithm for evaluation of longitudinal dipole moments, computationally more convenient than those presently implemented within the local basis periodic codes. This method is based on the straightforward evaluation of the usual direct space dipole matrix elements between local orbitals, as well as overlap matrices between wave functions at two neighboring k points of the reciprocal space mesh. The practical behavior of the algorithm and its convergence properties with respect to the k-point mesh density are illustrated in benchmark calculations for water chains and fluorinated trans-polyacetylene.     

Electron correlation effects on the shape of the Kohn–Sham molecular orbital

Even systems in which strong electron correlation effects are present, such as the large near-degeneracy correlation in a dissociating electron pair bond exemplified by stretched H₂, are represented in the Kohn–Sham (KS) model of non-interacting electrons by a determinantal wavefunction built from the KS molecular orbitals. As a contribution to the discussion on the status and meaning of the KS orbitals we investigate, for the prototype system of H₂ at large bond distance, and also for a one-dimensional molecular model, how the electron correlation effects show up in the shape of the KS σ _g orbital. KS orbitals φ^HL and φ^FCI obtained from the correlated Heitler-London and full configuration interaction wavefunctions are compared to the orbital φ^LCAO, the traditional linear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO) form of the (approximate) Hartree-Fock orbital. Electron correlation manifests itself in an essentially non-LCAO structure of the KS orbitals φ^HL and φ^FCI around the bond midpoint, which shows up particularly clearly in the Laplacian of the KS orbital. There are corresponding features in the kinetic energy density t _s of the KS system (a well around the bond midpoint) and in the one-electron KS potential v _s (a peak). The KS features are lacking in the Hartree-Fock orbital, in a minimal LCAO approximation as well as in the exact one. Received: 11 December 1996 / Accepted: 10 January 1997     

Pseudodiagonalization-based wavefunction optimization with contracted planewave basis functions

Electronic structure calculations representing the molecular orbitals (MOs) with contracted planewave basis functions (CPWBFs) have been reported recently. CPWBFs are Fourier-series representations of atom-centered basis functions. The mathematical features of CPWBFs permit the construction of matrix–vector products, FC _o , involving the application of the Fock matrix, F , to the set of occupied MOs, C _o , without the explicit evaluation of F . This approach offers a theoretical speed-up of M/n over F -based methods, where M and n are the number of basis functions and occupied MOs, respectively. The present study reports methodological advances that permit FC _o -based optimization of wavefunction formed from CPWBFs. In particular, a technique is reported for optimizing wavefunctions by combining pseudodiagonalization techniques based on an exact representation of FC _o , approximate information regarding the virtual orbital energies, and direct inversion of the iterative subspace optimization schemes to guide the wavefunction to a converged solution. This method is found to speed-up wavefunction optimizations by factors of up to ~6 − 8 over F -based optimization methods while providing identical results. Further, the computational cost of this technique is relatively insensitive to basis set size, thus providing further benefits in calculations using large CPWBF basis sets. The results of density functional theory calculations show that this method permits the use of hybrid exchange-correlation (XC) functionals with a small increase in effort over analogous calculations using generalized gradient approximation XC functionals. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Consistent modifications of SINDO1: I. Approximations and parameters

A consistent modification, MSINDO, of the semiempirical MO method SINDO1 is presented. Different basis sets are used for one- and two-center interactions. The treatment of the core matrix elements in the nonorthogonal basis is retained with changes only for hydrogen and 3d orbitals. Orthogonalization corrections are now restricted to nonvanishing core matrix elements in the INDO approximation. The set of atomic parameters is increased, but bond parameters are no longer used. An automatic nonlinear least-squares algorithm with a restricted step constraint is used for the optimization of parameters. Heats of formation are adjusted with inclusion of zero-point energies obtained by a scaling procedure of the force constant matrix. The present version MSINDO provides significant improvements over previous versions. A brief comparison for ground-state properties of the elements H, C, N, O, F, and Na to Cl is given. ©1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Comput Chem 20: 563–571, 1999     

Density matrices for correlated Gaussians: Helium and dipositronium

Formulas are derived for the density matrices belonging to an n-particle wave function built on the basis of single-center explicitly correlated Gaussian basis functions. An explicit formula for the first-order density matrix, P(r₁, r′₁), is obtained for computing the probability distribution P(r₁, r₁). Other formulas are derived for matrix elements of the first-order density operator P on a basis of single-particle Gaussian orbitals so that natural orbitals (NOs) can be expressed in such a basis. The method is illustrated for the case of the ground state of the helium atom using the 16-term (geminal) wave function by Singer and Longstaff (E = −2.90233 au) and a set of even-tempered Gaussian orbitals. The resulting natural orbitals compare favorably with natural orbitals from Cl expansions. The method is also applied to our 20 term (trimal) wave function for the ground state of dipositronium (E = −0.51560 au). Analysis is made in this case for pair correlation functions of both the electron-electron and the positron-electron pairs; results include the radial distributions of these pairs and their relative angular momentum. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Calculation of wave‐functions with frozen orbitals in mixed quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics methods. II. Application of the local basis equation

The application of the local basis equation (Ferenczy and Adams, J. Chem. Phys. 2009 , 130, 134108) in mixed quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) and quantum mechanics/quantum mechanics (QM/QM) methods is investigated. This equation is suitable to derive local basis nonorthogonal orbitals that minimize the energy of the system and it exhibits good convergence properties in a self‐consistent field solution. These features make the equation appropriate to be used in mixed QM/MM and QM/QM methods to optimize orbitals in the field of frozen localized orbitals connecting the subsystems. Calculations performed for several properties in divers systems show that the method is robust with various choices of the frozen orbitals and frontier atom properties. With appropriate basis set assignment, it gives results equivalent with those of a related approach [G. G. Ferenczy previous paper in this issue] using the Huzinaga equation. Thus, the local basis equation can be used in mixed QM/MM methods with small size quantum subsystems to calculate properties in good agreement with reference Hartree–Fock–Roothaan results. It is shown that bond charges are not necessary when the local basis equation is applied, although they are required for the self‐consistent field solution of the Huzinaga equation based method. Conversely, the deformation of the wave‐function near to the boundary is observed without bond charges and this has a significant effect on deprotonation energies but a less pronounced effect when the total charge of the system is conserved. The local basis equation can also be used to define a two layer quantum system with nonorthogonal localized orbitals surrounding the central delocalized quantum subsystem. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Computational simulations of hydrolysis of phosphazene oligomer utilizing atom‐centered density matrix propagation

Density functional theory (DFT) calculations, including the ab initio molecular dynamics method, atom‐centered density matrix propagation (ADMP), were used to investigate the hydrolysis reaction of a dichlorophosphazene trimer. The model trimer, intermediate structures and the product of the first step of hydrolysis, were optimized using DFT with the B3LYP density functional, followed by a 600 fs ADMP simulation. Natural bond order analysis (NBO) was used to determine atomic charges and occupancy of the bond orbitals and the lone pair orbitals of the molecule at various points along the simulation pathway. The simulation successfully shows dissociation of the trimer backbone into two distinct product molecules, shown through both increasing separation of the product units and through the more thorough NBO analysis of the bond orbitals. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Relation between the Slater–Kohn–Sham orbitals generated by the one-body potential V(r) of DFT and the Löwdin natural orbitals for inhomogeneous electron liquids

The Löwdin natural orbitals (NO) are defined as those orbitals which bring the first-order density matrix of a correlated electron assembly into diagonal form. Another one-particle density matrix with the same diagonal elements is the single-particle idempotent Dirac density matrix generated by the one-body potential of density functional theory. Here, we compare the off diagonal form of γ expanded in terms of the Slater–Kohn–Sham (SKS) orbitals generated by V(r) with the NO expansion of Löwdin for general inhomogeneous electron liquids. In particular, the equation of motion of the correlated γ is corrected from that of γ _s , both now containing the one-body potential V(r). To illustrate the theory presented here, we first construct an approximate, albeit accurate, correlated 1DM for the ground state of the He atom and display connections between the resulting NOs and the SKS orbitals. The second example we discuss, but now quite briefly, is that of the inhomogeneous electron liquid in crystalline Si, where the NO expansion is available from the literature.