Coupled Cluster and Quantum Chemistry Schemes for Solids

Abstract

Quantum chemical wavefunction-based theories approximate the true many-electron wavefunction in a compact fashion and bear the potential to predict materials properties with high accuracy. Their computational complexity is significantly higher than that of the current workhorse method in computational materials science, density functional theory in the framework of approximate exchange, and correlation density functionals. However, the increase in available computer power and methodological and algorithmic improvements during the last decade have made quantum chemical studies of increasing system sizes possible. Coupled cluster theories are among the most widely used quantum chemical wavefunction-based methods. They employ an exponential ansatz of the electronic wavefunction that constitutes a good trade-off between accuracy and computational cost for weakly correlated many-electron systems. Here, we discuss methodological aspects and recent developments of coupled cluster and related quantum chemical theories for ab initio-based materials modeling.