Doubly hybrid density functional xDH-PBE0 from a parameter-free global hybrid model PBE0

Following the XYG3 model which uses orbitals and density from B3LYP, an empirical doubly hybrid (DH) functional is developed by using inputs from PBE0. This new functional, named xDH-PBE0, has been tested on a number of different molecular properties, including atomization energies, bond dissociation enthalpies, reaction barrier heights, and nonbonded interactions. From the results obtained, xDH-PBE0 not only displays a significant improvement with respect to the parent PBE0, but also shows a performance that is comparable to XYG3. Arguably, while PBE0 is a parameter-free global hybrid (GH) functional, the B3LYP GH functional contains eight fit parameters. From a more general point of view, the present work points out that reliable and general-purpose DHs can be obtained with a limited number of fit parameters.