OpenMolcas: From Source Code to Insight
In this article we describe the OpenMolcas environment and invite the computational chemistry community to collaborate. The open-source project already includes a large number of new developments realized during the transition from the commercial MOLCAS product to the open-source platform. The paper initially describes the technical details of the new software development platform. This is followed by brief presentations of many new methods, implementations, and features of the OpenMolcas program suite. These developments include novel wave function methods such as stochastic complete active space self-consistent field, density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) methods, and hybrid multico…
Calibration of Cholesky Auxiliary Basis Sets for Multiconfigurational Perturbation Theory Calculations of Excitation Energies
The accuracy of auxiliary basis sets derived from Cholesky decomposition of two-electron integrals is assessed for excitation energies calculated at the state-average complete active space self-consistent field (CASSCF) and multiconfigurational second order perturbation theory (CASPT2) levels of theory using segmented as well as generally contracted atomic orbital basis sets. Based on 196 valence excitations in 26 organic molecules and 72 Rydberg excitations in 3 organic molecules, the results show that Cholesky auxiliary basis sets can be used without compromising the accuracy of the multiconfigurational methods. Specifically, with a decomposition threshold of 10(-4) au, the mean error due…
Fast noniterative orbital localization for large molecules
We use Cholesky decomposition of the density matrix in atomic orbital basis to define a new set of occupied molecular orbital coefficients. Analysis of the resulting orbitals ("Cholesky molecular orbitals") demonstrates their localized character inherited from the sparsity of the density matrix. Comparison with the results of traditional iterative localization schemes shows minor differences with respect to a number of suitable measures of locality, particularly the scaling with system size of orbital pair domains used in local correlation methods. The Cholesky procedure for generating orthonormal localized orbitals is noniterative and may be made linear scaling. Although our present implem…
Cholesky decomposition techniques in electronic structure theory
We review recently developed methods to efficiently utilize the Cholesky decomposition technique in electronic structure calculations. The review starts with a brief introduction to the basics of the Cholesky decomposition technique. Subsequently, examples of applications of the technique to ab inito procedures are presented. The technique is demonstrated to be a special type of a resolution-of-identity or density-fitting scheme. This is followed by explicit examples of the Cholesky techniques used in orbital localization, computation of the exchange contribution to the Fock matrix, in MP2, gradient calculations, and so-called method specific Cholesky decomposition. Subsequently, examples o…
A two-scale approach to electron correlation in multiconfigurational perturbation theory.
We present a new approach for the calculation of dynamic electron correlation effects in large molecular systems using multiconfigurational second-order perturbation theory (CASPT2). The method is restricted to cases where partitioning of the molecular system into an active site and an environment is meaningful. Only dynamic correlation effects derived from orbitals extending over the active site are included at the CASPT2 level of theory, whereas the correlation effects of the environment are retrieved at lower computational costs. For sufficiently large systems, the small errors introduced by this approximation are contrasted by the substantial savings in both storage and computational de…
Accurate ab initio density fitting for multiconfigurational self-consistent field methods
Using Cholesky decomposition and density fitting to approximate the electron repulsion integrals, an implementation of the complete active space self-consistent field (CASSCF) method suitable for large-scale applications is presented. Sample calculations on benzene, diaquo-tetra- μ -acetato-dicopper(II), and diuraniumendofullerene demonstrate that the Cholesky and density fitting approximations allow larger basis sets and larger systems to be treated at the CASSCF level of theory with controllable accuracy. While strict error control is an inherent property of the Cholesky approximation, errors arising from the density fitting approach are managed by using a recently proposed class of auxi…