<i>Ab initio</i> correlation functionals from second-order perturbation theory

Abstract

Orbital-dependent exchange-correlation functionals are not limited by the explicit dependence on the density and present an attractive alternative to conventional functionals. With the successful implementation of the exact orbital-dependent exchange functional, the challenge lies in developing orbital-dependent approximations for the correlation functional. Ab initio many-body methods can provide such approximations. In particular, perturbation theory with the Kohn-Sham model as the reference [Görling and Levy, Phys. Rev. A 50, 196 (1994)] defines the exact correlation functional via an infinite perturbation series. The second-order term of these series gives the lowest-order approximation to the correlation functional. However, it has been suggested [Bartlett et al., J. Chem. Phys. 122, 034104 (2005)] that the Kohn-Sham Hamiltonian is not the optimal choice for the perturbation expansion and a different reference Hamiltonian may lead to an improved perturbation series and more accurate second-order approximation. Here, we demonstrate explicitly that the modified series can be used to define superior functional and potential. We present results of atomic and molecular calculations with both second-order functionals. Our results demonstrate that the modified functional offers a significantly improved description of the correlation effects as it does not suffer from convergence problems and results in energies and densities that are more accurate than those obtained with second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory or generalized-gradient approximation functionals.