Search Results (11)

We address the scientific “time” concept in the context of more general relaxation processes toward the Wärmetod of thermodynamic equilibrium. More specifically, we sketch a construction of a conceptual ladder of chemical reaction steps that can rigorously bridge a description from the microscopic domain of molecular quantum chemistry to the macroscopic materials domain of Gibbsian thermodynamics. This conceptual reformulation follows the pioneering work of Kenichi Fukui (Nobel 1981) in rigorously formulating the intrinsic reaction coordinate (IRC) pathway for controlled description of non-equilibrium passages between reactant and product equilibrium states of an overall material transformation. Elementary chemical reaction steps are thereby identified as the logical building-blocks of an integrated mathematical framework that seamlessly spans the gulf between classical (pre-1925) and quantal (post-1925) scientific conceptions and encompasses both static and dynamic aspects of material change. All modern chemical reaction rate studies build on the apparent infallibility of quantum-chemical solutions of Schrödinger’s wave equation and its Dirac-type relativistic corrections. This infallibility may now be properly accepted as an added“inductive law” of Gibbsian chemical thermodynamics, the only component of 19th-century physics that passed intact through the revolutionary quantum upheavals of 1925. Full article

As a crucial parameter in Mössbauer spectroscopy, nuclear quadrupole splitting (NQS) exhibits a strong dependence on quantum chemistry methods, which makes accurate theoretical predictions challenging. Meanwhile, the continuous emergence of new density functionals presents opportunities to advance current NQS research. In this study, we evaluate the performance of eleven hybrid density functionals and twelve double-hybrid density functionals, selected from widely used functionals and newly developed functionals, in predicting the NQS values of the ⁵⁷Fe nuclide for 32 iron-containing molecules within about 70 atoms. The calculations have incorporated scalar relativistic effects using the exact two-component (X2C) Hamiltonian. In general, the double-hybrid functional PBE-0DH demonstrates superior performance compared to the experimental values, achieving a mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.20 mm/s. Meanwhile, rSCAN38 is the best hybrid functional for our database with an MAE = 0.25 mm/s, and it offers a significant advantage in computational efficiency over PBE-0DH. The $+/-$ sign of NQS has also been considered in our error statistics when it has a clear physical meaning; if neglected, the errors of many functionals decrease, but PBE-0DH and rSCAN38 remain unaffected. Notably, when calculating ferrocene [Fe(C₅H₅)₂], which involves strong static correlations, all hybrid functionals that incorporate more than 10% exact exchange fail, while several double-hybrid functionals continue to deliver reliable results. In addition, we encountered two particularly challenging species characterized by strong static correlations: [Fe(H₂O)₅NO]²+ and FeO₂⁻-porphyrin. Unfortunately, none of the density functionals tested in our study yielded satisfactory results for the two cases since the density functional theory (DFT) is a single-determinant approach, and it is imperative to explore large-scale multi-configurational methods for these species. This research offers valuable guidance for selecting density functionals in Mössbauer NQS calculations and serves as a reference point for the future development of new density functionals. Full article

Generalized relativistic pseudopotentials (GRPP) of atomic cores implying the use of different potentials for atomic electronic shells with different principal quantum numbers give rise to accurate and reliable relativistic electronic structure models of atoms, molecules, clusters, and solids. These models readily incorporate the effects of Breit electron–electron interactions and one-loop quantum electrodynamics effects. Here, we report the computational procedure for evaluating one-electron integrals of GRPP over contracted Gaussian functions. This procedure was implemented in a library of routines named LIBGRPP, which can be integrated into existing quantum chemistry software, thus enabling the application of various methods to solve the many-electron problem with GRPPs. Pilot applications to electronic transitions in the ThO and UO${}_2$ molecules using the new library and intermediate-Hamiltonian Fock space relativistic coupled cluster method are presented. Deviations of excitation energies obtained within the GRPP approach from their all-electron Dirac–Coulomb–Gaunt counterparts do not exceed 50 cm${}^{-1}$ for the 31 lowest-energy states of ThO and 110 cm${}^{-1}$ for the 79 states of UO${}_2$. The results clearly demonstrate that rather economical tiny-core GRPP models can exceed in accuracy relativistic all-electron models defined by Dirac–Coulomb and Dirac–Coulomb–Gaunt Hamiltonians. Full article

The theoretical foundations of relativistic electronic structure theory within quantum electrodynamics (QED) and the computational basis of the atomic structure code GRASP are briefly surveyed. A class of four-component basis set is introduced, which we denote the CKG-spinor set, that enforces the charge-conjugation symmetry of the Dirac equation. This formalism has been implemented using the Gaussian function technology that is routinely used in computational quantum chemistry, including in our relativistic molecular structure code, BERTHA. We demonstrate that, unlike the kinetically matched two-component basis sets that are widely employed in relativistic quantum chemistry, the CKG-spinor basis is able to reproduce the well-known eigenvalue spectrum of point-nuclear hydrogenic systems to high accuracy for all atomic symmetry types. Calculations are reported of third- and higher-order vacuum polarization effects in hydrogenic systems using the CKG-spinor set. These results reveal that Gaussian basis set expansions are able to calculate accurately these QED effects without recourse to the apparatus of regularization and in agreement with existing methods. An approach to the evaluation of the electron self-energy is outlined that extends our earlier work using partial-wave expansions in QED. Combined with the treatment of vacuum polarization effects described in this article, these basis set methods suggest the development of a comprehensive ab initio approach to the calculation of radiative and QED effects in future versions of the GRASP code. Full article

In this article, the previously unrecognized contributions of Pierre Duhem and Ladislavus Natanson in thermodynamics are shown. The mathematical remodelling of a few of their principal ideas is taken into consideration, despite being neglected in the literature. To emphasize these ideas in an appropriate epistemological order, it would be crucial to first revalue and reconstruct some underrepresented parts of the proceedings process through which Duhem and Natanson created their thermodynamics. Duhem and Natanson’s scientific works are against the background of modern continuum mechanics, presenting relevant approaches. In line with the long-held beliefs of many French and Polish researchers, the article mentions that Duhem and Natanson’s ideas dated back to one century ago. Both scientists were qualified in the same Royal Way, which in this case includes chemistry, mechanic of fluid and solid, electro-chemistry, thermodynamics, electrodynamics, and relativistic and quantum mechanics. Therefore, it is possible to connect and then compare the results of their conceptions and approaches. Duhem and Natanson are both in firm opposition with Newtonian mechanisms. Thus, the Maupertuis least action principle created the ground for their efforts, in which they flourished as an elementary quantum. Full article

The energy and structural parameters were obtained for all forms of the carbonyl complex of osmium Os₃(CO)₁₂ with D_3h and D₃ symmetries using density functional theory (DFT) methods. The calculations took into account various levels of relativistic effects, including those associated with nonconservation of spatial parity. It was shown that the ground state of Os₃(CO)₁₂ corresponds to the D₃ symmetry and thus may be characterized either as left-twisted (D_3S) or right-twisted (D_3R). The D_3S↔D_3R transitions occur through the D_3h transition state with an activation barrier of ~10^–14 kJ/mol. Parity violation energy difference (PVED) between D_3S and D_3R states equals to ~5 × 10⁻¹⁰ kJ/mol. An unusual three-center exchange interaction was found inside the {Os₃} fragment. It was found that the cooperative effects of the mutual influence of osmium atoms suppress the chirality of the electron system in the cluster. Full article

We present a quantum algorithm for simulation of quantum field theory in the light-front formulation and demonstrate how existing quantum devices can be used to study the structure of bound states in relativistic nuclear physics. Specifically, we apply the Variational Quantum Eigensolver algorithm to find the ground state of the light-front Hamiltonian obtained within the Basis Light-Front Quantization (BLFQ) framework. The BLFQ formulation of quantum field theory allows one to readily import techniques developed for digital quantum simulation of quantum chemistry. This provides a method that can be scaled up to simulation of full, relativistic quantum field theories in the quantum advantage regime. As an illustration, we calculate the mass, mass radius, decay constant, electromagnetic form factor, and charge radius of the pion on the IBM Vigo chip. This is the first time that the light-front approach to quantum field theory has been used to enable simulation of a real physical system on a quantum computer. Full article

The prediction of paramagnetic NMR (pNMR) chemical shifts in molecules containing heavy atoms presents a significant challenge to computational quantum chemistry. The importance of meeting this challenge lies in the central role that NMR plays in the structural characterisation of chemical systems. Hence there is a need for reliable assignment and prediction of chemical shifts. In a previous study [Trends in Physical Chemistry, 17, 25–57, (2017)] we looked at the computation of pNMR chemical shifts in lanthanide and actinide complexes using a spin Hamiltonian approach. In that study we were principally concerned with molecules with S = 1/2 ground states. In the present work we extend that study by looking at the effect of zero field splitting (ZFS) for six complexes with S = 3/2 ground states. It is shown that the inclusion of ZFS can produce substantial shifts in the predicted chemical shifts. The computations presented are typically sufficient to enable assignment of experimental spectra. However for one case, in which the peaks are closely clustered, the inclusion of ZFS re-orders the chemical shifts making assignment quite difficult. We also observe, and echo, the previously reported importance of including the paramagnetic spin-orbit hyperfine interaction for ${}^{13}$ C and ${}^{29}$ Si atoms, when these are directly bound to a heavy element and thus subject to heavy-atom-light-atom effects. The necessary computations are very demanding, and more work is needed to find theoretical and computational approaches that simplify the evaluation of this term. We discuss the computation of each term required in the spin Hamiltonian. The systems we study in this work are restricted to a single heavy atom ion (one Nd(III) and five U(III) complexes), but typify some of the computational complexity encountered in lanthanide and actinide containing molecules. Full article

Boltzmann introduced in the 1870s a logarithmic measure for the connection between the thermodynamical entropy and the probabilities of the microscopic configurations of the system. His celebrated entropic functional for classical systems was then extended by Gibbs to the entire phase space of a many-body system and by von Neumann in order to cover quantum systems, as well. Finally, it was used by Shannon within the theory of information. The simplest expression of this functional corresponds to a discrete set of W microscopic possibilities and is given by $S_{BG}=-k{\sum }_{i=1}^W{p}_{i}ln{p}_i$ (k is a positive universal constant; BG stands for Boltzmann–Gibbs). This relation enables the construction of BGstatistical mechanics, which, together with the Maxwell equations and classical, quantum and relativistic mechanics, constitutes one of the pillars of contemporary physics. The BG theory has provided uncountable important applications in physics, chemistry, computational sciences, economics, biology, networks and others. As argued in the textbooks, its application in physical systems is legitimate whenever the hypothesis of ergodicity is satisfied, i.e., when ensemble and time averages coincide. However, what can we do when ergodicity and similar simple hypotheses are violated, which indeed happens in very many natural, artificial and social complex systems. The possibility of generalizing BG statistical mechanics through a family of non-additive entropies was advanced in 1988, namely $S_q=k\frac{1-{\sum }_{i=1}^W{p}_i^q}{q-1}$ , which recovers the additive $S_{BG}$ entropy in the q→ 1 limit. The index q is to be determined from mechanical first principles, corresponding to complexity universality classes. Along three decades, this idea intensively evolved world-wide (see the Bibliography in http://tsallis.cat.cbpf.br/biblio.htm) and led to a plethora of predictions, verifications and applications in physical systems and elsewhere. As expected, whenever a paradigm shift is explored, some controversy naturally emerged, as well, in the community. The present status of the general picture is here described, starting from its dynamical and thermodynamical foundations and ending with its most recent physical applications. Full article

Finite-temperature density functional theory (DFT) has become of topical interest, partly due to the increasing ability to create novel states of warm-correlated matter (WCM).Warm-dense matter (WDM), ultra-fast matter (UFM), and high-energy density matter (HEDM) may all be regarded as subclasses of WCM. Strong electron-electron, ion-ion and electron-ion correlation effects and partial degeneracies are found in these systems where the electron temperature T_e is comparable to the electron Fermi energy E_F. Thus, many electrons are in continuum states which are partially occupied. The ion subsystem may be solid, liquid or plasma, with many states of ionization with ionic charge Z_j. Quasi-equilibria with the ion temperature T_i ≠ T_e are common. The ion subsystem in WCM can no longer be treated as a passive “external potential”, as is customary in T = 0 DFT dominated by solid-state theory or quantum chemistry. Many basic questions arise in trying to implement DFT for WCM. Hohenberg-Kohn-Mermin theory can be adapted for treating these systems if suitable finite-T exchange-correlation (XC) functionals can be constructed. They are functionals of both the one-body electron density ne and the one-body ion densities ρj. Here, j counts many species of nuclei or charge states. A method of approximately but accurately mapping the quantum electrons to a classical Coulomb gas enables one to treat electron-ion systems entirely classically at any temperature and arbitrary spin polarization, using exchange-correlation effects calculated in situ, directly from the pair-distribution functions. This eliminates the need for any XC-functionals. This classical map has been used to calculate the equation of state of WDM systems, and construct a finite-T XC functional that is found to be in close agreement with recent quantum path-integral simulation data. In this review, current developments and concerns in finite-T DFT, especially in the context of non-relativistic warm-dense matter and ultra-fast matter will be presented. Full article

Rhodium acetate, related rhodium carboxylates, and rhodium amide complexes are powerful catalysts for carbene chemistry. They readily promote the decomposition of diazo compounds and transfer the resulting carbene to a variety of substrates. There have been several quantum chemistry studies of these compounds, particularly of the acetate. These have all used non-relativistic methods, and all have shown optimized Rh-Rh bond lengths significantly longer than the experimental value. In this study we have surveyed several scalar relativistic DFT methods using Gaussian, Slater, and numerical basis functions (in DGAUSS, ADF, and DMOL3). Several combinations of exchange-correlation functionals with relativistic and non-relativistic effective core potentials (ECP) were investigated, as were non-relativistic and all electron scalar relativistic methods. The combination of the PW91 exchange and PW91 correlation functional with the Christiansen-Ermler ECP gave the best results: 2.3918 Å compared to the experimental value of 2.3855±0.0005 Å. Full article