Engineering topics
Zhang, Dayou
Publications and source records attributed to Zhang, Dayou.
Electronic structure of strongly correlated systems: recent developments in multiconfiguration pair-density functional theory and multiconfiguration nonclassical-energy functional theory
Strong electron correlation plays an important role in transition-metal and heavy-metal chemistry, magnetic molecules, bond breaking, biradicals, excited states, and many functional materials, but it provides a significant challenge for modern electronic structure theory. The treatment of strongly correlated systems usually requires a multireference method to adequately describe spin densities and near-degeneracy correlation. However, quantitative computation of dynamic correlation with multireference wave functions is often difficult or impractical. Multiconfiguration pair-density functional theory (MC-PDFT) provides a way to blend multiconfiguration wave function theory and density functional theory to quantitatively treat both near-degeneracy correlation and dynamic correlation in strongly correlated systems; it is more affordable than multireference perturbation theory, multireference configuration interaction, or multireference coupled cluster theory and more accurate for many properties than Kohn–Sham density functional theory. This perspective article provides a brief introduction to strongly correlated systems and previously reviewed progress on MC-PDFT followed by a discussion of several recent developments and applications of MC-PDFT and related methods, including localized-active-space MC-PDFT, generalized active-space MC-PDFT, density-matrix-renormalization-group MC-PDFT, hybrid MC-PDFT, multistate MC-PDFT, spin–orbit coupling, analytic gradients, and dipole moments. We also review the more recently introduced multiconfiguration nonclassical-energy functional theory (MC-NEFT), which is like MC-PDFT but allows for other ingredients in the nonclassical-energy functional. We discuss two new kinds of MC-NEFT methods, namely multiconfiguration density coherence functional theory and machine-learned functionals.
Unmasking Static Correlation Error in Hybrid Kohn–Sham Density Functional Theory
To uncover the way Hartree–Fock exchange brings static correlation error into hybrid Kohn–Sham density functional theory, we compare the potential energy curves of four diatomic molecules, namely, H 2 , F 2 , HF, and NaF, using both restricted and unrestricted Kohn–Sham theory. Here, we find that increasing the percentage of Hartree–Fock exchange significantly increases the static correlation error because Hartree–Fock exchange replaces the ability of local exchange in density functionals to account for the localization effects associated with static correlation.
Spin Splitting Energy of Transition Metals: A New, More Affordable Wave Function Benchmark Method and Its Use to Test Density Functional Theory
Accurately predicting the spin splitting energy of chemical species is important for understanding their reactivity and magnetic properties, but it is very challenging, especially for molecules containing transition metals. One impediment to progress is the scarcity of accurate benchmark data. Here we report a set of calculations designed to yield reliable benchmarks for simple transition-metal complexes that can be used to test density functional methods that are affordable for large systems of more practical interest. Various wave function methods are tested against experiment for Fe 2+ , Fe 3+ , and Co 3+ , including CASSCF, CASPT2, CASPT3, MRCISD, MRCISD+Q, ACPF, AQCC, CCSD(T), and CASPT2/CCSD(T) and also a new method called CASPT2.5, which is performed by taking the average of the CASPT2 and CASPT3 energies. Furthermore, we find that MRCISD+Q, ACPF, and AQCC require smaller active spaces for good accuracy than are required by CASPT2 and CASPT3, and this aspect may be important for calculations on larger molecules; here we find that CASPT2.5 extrapolated to a complete basis set is the most suitable method—in terms of computational cost and in terms of accuracy on monatomic systems—and therefore we chose this method for molecular benchmarks. Then Kohn–Sham density functional calculations with 60 exchange-correlation functionals are tested for FeF 2 , FeCl 2 , and CoF 2 . We find that MN15-L, M06-SX, and revM06 have very good agreement with CASPT2.5 benchmarks in terms of both the spin splitting energy and the optimized geometry for each spin state. In addition, we recommend def2-TZVP as the most suitable basis set to perform density functional calculations for molecular spin splitting energies; extra polarization functions in the basis set do not help to increase the accuracy of the spin splitting energy in KS calculations.