Advances in vibrational configuration interaction theory - part 2: Fast screening of the correlation space

J Comput Chem. 2022 Jan 5;43(1):6-18. doi: 10.1002/jcc.26764. Epub 2021 Oct 15.

Abstract

For larger molecules, the computational demands of configuration selective vibrational configuration interaction theory (cs-VCI) are usually dominated by the configuration selection process, which commonly is based on second order vibrational Møller-Plesset perturbation (VMP2) theory. Here we present two techniques, which lead to substantial accelerations of such calculations while retaining the desired high accuracy of the final results. The first one introduces the concept of configuration classes, which allows for a highly efficient exploitation of the analogs of the Slater-Condon rules in vibrational structure calculations with large correlation spaces. The second approach uses a VMP2 like vector for augmenting the targeted vibrational wavefunction within the selection of configurations and thus avoids any intermediate diagonalization steps. The underlying theory is outlined and benchmark calculations are provided for highly correlated vibrational states of several molecules.

Keywords: configuration selection; vibrational configuration interaction theory; vibrational structure theory.