In quantum chemistry, a complete active space is a type of classification of molecular orbitals. Spatial orbitals are classified as belonging to three classes:
core, always hold two electrons
active, partially occupied orbitals
virtual, always hold zero electrons
This classification allows one to develop a set of Slater determinants for the description of the wavefunction as a linear combination of these determinants. Based on the freedom left for the occupation in the active orbitals, a certain number of electrons are allowed to populate all the active orbitals in appropriate combinations, developing a finite-size space of determinants. The resulting wavefunction is of multireference nature, and is blessed by additional properties if compared to other selection schemes.
The active classification can theoretically be extended to all the molecular orbitals, to obtain a full CI treatment. In practice, this choice is limited, due to the high computational cost needed to optimize a large CAS wavefunction on medium and large molecular systems.
A Complete Active Space wavefunction is used to obtain a first approximation of the so-called static correlation, which represents the contribution needed to describe bond dissociation processes correctly. This requires a wavefunction that includes a set of electronic configurations with high and very similar importance. Dynamic correlation, representing the contribution to the energy brought by the instantaneous interaction between electrons, is normally small and can be recovered with good accuracy by means of perturbative evaluations, such as CASPT2 and NEVPT.
Computational chemistry is a branch of chemistry that uses computer simulation to assist in solving chemical problems. It uses methods of theoretical chemistry, incorporated into computer programs, to calculate the structures and properties of molecules, groups of molecules, and solids. It is essential because, apart from relatively recent results concerning the hydrogen molecular ion, the quantum many-body problem cannot be solved analytically, much less in closed form. While computational results normally complement the information obtained by chemical experiments, it can in some cases predict hitherto unobserved chemical phenomena. It is widely used in the design of new drugs and materials.
A covalent bond is a chemical bond that involves the sharing of electrons to form electron pairs between atoms. These electron pairs are known as shared pairs or bonding pairs. The stable balance of attractive and repulsive forces between atoms, when they share electrons, is known as covalent bonding. For many molecules, the sharing of electrons allows each atom to attain the equivalent of a full valence shell, corresponding to a stable electronic configuration. In organic chemistry, covalent bonding is much more common than ionic bonding.
In chemistry, a molecular orbital is a mathematical function describing the location and wave-like behavior of an electron in a molecule. This function can be used to calculate chemical and physical properties such as the probability of finding an electron in any specific region. The terms atomic orbital and molecular orbital were introduced by Robert S. Mulliken in 1932 to mean one-electron orbital wave functions. At an elementary level, they are used to describe the region of space in which a function has a significant amplitude.
In quantum chemistry, electron density or electronic density is the measure of the probability of an electron being present at an infinitesimal element of space surrounding any given point. It is a scalar quantity depending upon three spatial variables and is typically denoted as either or . The density is determined, through definition, by the normalised -electron wavefunction which itself depends upon variables. Conversely, the density determines the wave function modulo up to a phase factor, providing the formal foundation of density functional theory.
A linear combination of atomic orbitals or LCAO is a quantum superposition of atomic orbitals and a technique for calculating molecular orbitals in quantum chemistry. In quantum mechanics, electron configurations of atoms are described as wavefunctions. In a mathematical sense, these wave functions are the basis set of functions, the basis functions, which describe the electrons of a given atom. In chemical reactions, orbital wavefunctions are modified, i.e. the electron cloud shape is changed, according to the type of atoms participating in the chemical bond.
Coupled cluster (CC) is a numerical technique used for describing many-body systems. Its most common use is as one of several post-Hartree–Fock ab initio quantum chemistry methods in the field of computational chemistry, but it is also used in nuclear physics. Coupled cluster essentially takes the basic Hartree–Fock molecular orbital method and constructs multi-electron wavefunctions using the exponential cluster operator to account for electron correlation. Some of the most accurate calculations for small to medium-sized molecules use this method.
MOLPRO is a software package used for accurate ab initio quantum chemistry calculations. It is developed by Peter Knowles at Cardiff University and Hans-Joachim Werner at Universität Stuttgart in collaboration with other authors.
Møller–Plesset perturbation theory (MP) is one of several quantum chemistry post–Hartree–Fock ab initio methods in the field of computational chemistry. It improves on the Hartree–Fock method by adding electron correlation effects by means of Rayleigh–Schrödinger perturbation theory (RS-PT), usually to second (MP2), third (MP3) or fourth (MP4) order. Its main idea was published as early as 1934 by Christian Møller and Milton S. Plesset.
Electronic correlation is the interaction between electrons in the electronic structure of a quantum system. The correlation energy is a measure of how much the movement of one electron is influenced by the presence of all other electrons.
Multi-configurational self-consistent field (MCSCF) is a method in quantum chemistry used to generate qualitatively correct reference states of molecules in cases where Hartree–Fock and density functional theory are not adequate. It uses a linear combination of configuration state functions (CSF), or configuration determinants, to approximate the exact electronic wavefunction of an atom or molecule. In an MCSCF calculation, the set of coefficients of both the CSFs or determinants and the basis functions in the molecular orbitals are varied to obtain the total electronic wavefunction with the lowest possible energy. This method can be considered a combination between configuration interaction and Hartree–Fock.
In theoretical and computational chemistry, a basis set is a set of functions that is used to represent the electronic wave function in the Hartree–Fock method or density-functional theory in order to turn the partial differential equations of the model into algebraic equations suitable for efficient implementation on a computer.
Koopmans' theorem states that in closed-shell Hartree–Fock theory (HF), the first ionization energy of a molecular system is equal to the negative of the orbital energy of the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO). This theorem is named after Tjalling Koopmans, who published this result in 1934.
In quantum chemistry, the multireference configuration interaction (MRCI) method consists of a configuration interaction expansion of the eigenstates of the electronic molecular Hamiltonian in a set of Slater determinants which correspond to excitations of the ground state electronic configuration but also of some excited states. The Slater determinants from which the excitations are performed are called reference determinants. The higher excited determinants are then chosen either by the program according to some perturbation theoretical ansatz according to a threshold provided by the user or simply by truncating excitations from these references to singly, doubly, ... excitations resulting in MRCIS, MRCISD, etc.
Full configuration interaction is a linear variational approach which provides numerically exact solutions to the electronic time-independent, non-relativistic Schrödinger equation.
PQS is a general purpose quantum chemistry program. Its roots go back to the first ab initio gradient program developed in Professor Peter Pulay's group but now it is developed and distributed commercially by Parallel Quantum Solutions. There is a reduction in cost for academic users and a site license. Its strong points are geometry optimization, NMR chemical shift calculations, and large MP2 calculations, and high parallel efficiency on computing clusters. It includes many other capabilities including Density functional theory, the semiempirical methods, MINDO/3, MNDO, AM1 and PM3, Molecular mechanics using the SYBYL 5.0 Force Field, the quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics mixed method using the ONIOM method, natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis and COSMO solvation models. Recently, a highly efficient parallel CCSD(T) code for closed shell systems has been developed. This code includes many other post Hartree–Fock methods: MP2, MP3, MP4, CISD, CEPA, QCISD and so on.
In quantum chemistry, a configuration state function (CSF), is a symmetry-adapted linear combination of Slater determinants. A CSF must not be confused with a configuration. In general, one configuration gives rise to several CSFs; all have the same total quantum numbers for spin and spatial parts but differ in their intermediate couplings.
In quantum chemistry, n-electron valence state perturbation theory (NEVPT) is a perturbative treatment applicable to multireference CASCI-type wavefunctions. It can be considered as a generalization of the well-known second-order Møller–Plesset perturbation theory to multireference Complete Active Space cases. The theory is directly integrated into many quantum chemistry packages such as MOLCAS, Molpro, DALTON, PySCF and ORCA.
Ab initio quantum chemistry methods are computational chemistry methods based on quantum chemistry. The term ab initio was first used in quantum chemistry by Robert Parr and coworkers, including David Craig in a semiempirical study on the excited states of benzene. The background is described by Parr. Ab initio means "from first principles" or "from the beginning", implying that the only inputs into an ab initio calculation are physical constants. Ab initio quantum chemistry methods attempt to solve the electronic Schrödinger equation given the positions of the nuclei and the number of electrons in order to yield useful information such as electron densities, energies and other properties of the system. The ability to run these calculations has enabled theoretical chemists to solve a range of problems and their importance is highlighted by the awarding of the Nobel prize to John Pople and Walter Kohn.
Understanding the structure of the atomic nucleus is one of the central challenges in nuclear physics.
Complete active space perturbation theory (CASPTn) is a multireference electron correlation method for computational investigation of molecular systems, especially for those with heavy atoms such as transition metals, lanthanides, and actinides. It can be used, for instance, to describe electronic states of a system, when single reference methods and density functional theory cannot be used, and for heavy atom systems for which quasi-relativistic approaches are not appropriate.
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