Publications

Density-functional calculations on transition-metal atoms are problematic due to the numerous possible ways, having inequivalent densities, of occupying the d orbitals. The problem is compounded by the issue of real orbitals versus complex orbitals. In this work we systematize the application of density-functional theories to transition-metal atoms using a current-density-dependent functional. For all the single-determinantal angular momentum eigenstates of ground-state terms, we obtain near degeneracy for the energies as we should. Also, we find a simple rule for occupying the real d orbitals that reproduces the energies of the (complex) angular momentum eigenstate results. Thus the long-standing confusion over how to compute transition-metal atom reference energies is resolved.

A new dynamical correlation functional is constructed subject to a small number of simple, yet key, requirements not all satisfied by existing functionals in the literature. The new functional gives good atomic correlation energies, and, in conjunction with previous gradient-corrected exchange functionals and exact-exchange mixing, excellent thermochemistry in the G2 benchmarks of Pople and co-workers.

In a recent paper, Becke et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 158, 151103 (2023)] presented a novel double hybrid density functional, “DH23,” whose terms are based on good physics. Its 12 coefficients were trained on the GMTKN55 (general main-group thermochemistry, kinetics, and noncovalent interactions) chemical database of Goerigk et al. [Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 19, 32184 (2017)]. The lowest GMTKN55 “WTMAD2” error to date for any hybrid or double hybrid density functional was obtained (1.76 kcal/mol). Here, we make some revisions to DH23 and test its efficacy on reference data beyond GMTKN55, namely, organometallic reaction energies and barrier heights. The results confirm that DH23 is robust outside its training set. In the process, a slightly smaller GMTKN55 WTMAD2 of 1.73 kcal/mol is achieved.

Current gradient-corrected density-functional approximations for the exchange energies of atomic and molecular systems fail to reproduce the correct 1/r asymptotic behavior of the exchange-energy density. Here we report a gradient-corrected exchange-energy functional with the proper asymptotic limit. Our functional, containing only one parameter, fits the exact Hartree-Fock exchange energies of a wide variety of atomic systems with remarkable accuracy, surpassing the performance of previous functionals containing two parameters or more.

Density functional theory (DFT) is a (in principle exact) theory of electronic structure, based on the electron density distribution n(r), instead of the many-electron wave function Ψ(r1,r2,r3,...). Having been widely used for over 30 years by physicists working on the electronic structure of solids, surfaces, defects, etc., it has more recently also become popular with theoretical and computational chemists. The present article is directed at the chemical community. It aims to convey the basic concepts and breadth of applications: the current status and trends of approximation methods (local density and generalized gradient approximations, hybrid methods) and the new light which DFT has been shedding on important concepts like electronegativity, hardness, and chemical reactivity index.

A simple model is presented in which the instantaneous dipole moment of the exchange hole is used to generate a dispersion interaction between nonoverlapping systems. The model is easy to implement, requiring no electron correlation (in the usual sense) or time dependence, and has been tested on various atomic and molecular pairs. The resulting C6 dispersion coefficients are remarkably accurate.

Exchange holes in molecules can be delocalized over several centers, thus throwing into question their approximation by local density functionals. This work introduces a simple model which detects delocalization in molecules through a local variable related to kinetic energy density. A local exchange functional is derived that reproduces exact-exchange atomization energies of molecules with relatively low error. This has important implications for the simplification of “hybrid” density-functional theories which contain an exactly computed exchange term.

Bindungen und freie Elektronenpaare „sichtbar”︁ zu machen gelingt, wenn die Elektronendichteverteilung zur Berechnung der Elektronenlokalisierungsfunktion (ELF) genutzt wird. Dieser Beitrag präsentiert eine computergraphische Darstellung von ELF (rechts z. B. von N 2 , hier allerdings nur schwarzweiß wiedergegeben), in der Farben das Ausmaß der Lokalisierung beschreiben. magnified image

In previous work, Kannemann and Becke [ J. Chem. Theory Comput. 5, 719 (2009) and J. Chem. Theory Comput. 6, 1081 (2010) ] have demonstrated that the generalized gradient approximations (GGAs) of Perdew and Wang for exchange [Phys. Rev. B 33, 8800 (1986)] and Perdew, Burke, and Ernzerhof for correlation [Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 3865 (1996)] , plus the dispersion density functional of Becke and Johnson [J. Chem. Phys. 127, 154108 (2007)] , comprise a nonempirical density-functional theory of high accuracy for thermochemistry and van der Waals complexes. The theory is nonempirical except for two universal cutoff parameters in the dispersion energy. Our calculations so far have been grid-based and have employed the local density approximation (LDA) for the orbitals. In this work, we employ orbitals from self-consistent GGA calculations using Gaussian basis sets. The results, on a benchmark set of 65 van der Waals complexes, are similar to our grid-based post-LDA results. This work sets the stage for van der Waals force computations and geometry optimizations.

Vertical single-particle excitations from closed-shell ground states are complicated by the fact that the singlet open-shell states are, even in the first approximation, two-determinantal. Thus two-electron integrals come into play and standard time-independent DFT (density-functional theory) does not apply. In this work, we use the “adiabatic connection” to analyse the role of the two-electron integrals, obtaining a time-independent DFT approach to excitation-energy calculations that is new and simple. A non-empirical modeling of the method works as well as the popular TD-B3LYP time-dependent approach to excited states, and can be made even simpler by introducing one reasonable semi-empirical parameter.

We have recently introduced [J. Chem. Phys. 122, 154104 (2005)] a simple parameter-free model of the dispersion interaction based on the instantaneous in space, dipole moment of the exchange hole. The model generates remarkably accurate interatomic and intermolecular C6 dispersion coefficients, and geometries and binding energies of intermolecular complexes. The model involves, in its original form, occupied Hartree-Fock or Kohn-Sham orbitals. Here we present a density-functional reformulation depending only on total density, the gradient and Laplacian of the density, and the kinetic-energy density. This density-functional model performs as well as the explicitly orbital-dependent model, yet offers obvious computational advantages.

In a previous work [J. Chem. Phys. 127, 124108 (2007)] we introduced an exact-exchange-based density-functional methodology incorporating dynamical, nondynamical, and dispersion correlations, called DF07. In this work, the performance of the DF07 method is assessed on a variety of thermochemical and kinetic benchmark data including ionization potentials, electron affinities, proton affinities, isomerization energies, bond dissociation enthalpies, and barrier heights of radical reactions. DF07 gives uniform accuracy over all our benchmark data without any refitting of parameters. The importance of the exact-exchange character of DF07 is highlighted through comparison with a three-parameter hybrid meta-generalized-gradient-approximation functional.

The exchange-only (uncorrelated) singlet-triplet energy difference in one-electron excited configurations is 2Kif, where Kif is the Coulomb self-energy of the product of the transition orbitals. A nonempirical, virial-theorem argument was presented by Becke [J. Chem. Phys. 148, 044112 (2018)] that the correlated singlet-triplet energy difference should be half of this, namely, Kif. This incredibly simple result gave HOMO-LUMO singlet excitation energies in small-molecule benchmark sets as good as the popular TD-B3LYP time-dependent approach to excited states. In a subsequent application to long-chain polyenes approaching the polyacetylene limit [A. D. Becke, J. Chem. Phys. 149, 081102 (2018)], we found a dramatic dependence of the optical gap on the amount of exact exchange in the density functionals used to generate the orbitals. Here, we assess the effect of the exact-exchange fraction in standard small-molecule tests. Also, we assess two basis-set extremes: the highly practical cc-pVDZ basis set and the higher-quality aug-cc-pVTZ.

We propose a simple scheme for decomposition of molecular functions into single-center components. The problem of three-dimensional integration in molecular systems thus reduces to a sum of one-center, atomic-like integrations which are treated using standard numerical techniques in spherical polar coordinates. The resulting method is tested on representative diatomic and polyatomic systems for which we obtain five- or six-figure accuracy using a few thousand integration points per atom.

We have previously demonstrated that the dipole moment of the exchange hole can be used to derive intermolecular C6 dispersion coefficients [J. Chem. Phys. 122, 154104 (2005)]. This was subsequently the basis for a novel post-Hartree-Fock model of intermolecular interactions [J. Chem. Phys. 123, 024101 (2005)]. In the present work, the model is extended to include higher-order dispersion coefficients C8 and C10. The extended model performs very well for prediction of intermonomer separations and binding energies of 45 van der Waals complexes. In particular, it performs twice as well as basis-set extrapolated MP2 theory for dispersion-bound complexes, with minimal computational cost.