In this paper we present a comprehensive account of a manifestly size-consistent coupled cluster formalism for a specific state, which is based on a reference function composed of determinants spanning a complete active space (CAS). The method treats all the reference determinants on the same footing and is hence expected to provide uniform description over a wide range of molecular geometry. The combining coefficients are determined by diagonalizing an effective operator in the CAS and are thus completely flexible, not constrained to preassigned values. A separate exponential-type excitation operator is invoked to induce excitations to all the virtual functions from each reference determinant. The linear dependence inherent in this choice of cluster operators is eliminated by invoking suitable sufficiency conditions, which in a transparent manner leads to manifest size extensivity. The use of a CAS also guarantees size consistency. We also discuss the relation of our method with the extant state-specific formalisms. Illustrative applications are presented for systems such as H4 in rectangular and trapezoidal geometries, the Be–H2 C2v insertion reaction path, the potential energy surface of Li2 and F2, and certain states of CH2 and C2 molecules with pronounced multireference character. The results indicate the efficacy of the method for obviating the intruders and of providing accuracy.

A generalization of normal ordering and of Wick’s theorem with respect to an arbitrary reference function Φ as some generalized “physical vacuum” is formulated in a different (but essentially equivalent) way than that suggested previously by one of the present authors. Guiding principles are that normal order operators with respect to any reference state must be expressible as linear combinations of those with respect to the genuine vacuum, that the vacuum expectation value of a normal order operator must vanish (with respect to the vacuum to which it is in normal order), and that the well-known formalism for a single Slater determinant as physical vacuum must be contained as a special case. The derivation is largely based on the concepts of “Quantum Chemistry in Fock space,” which means that particle-number-conserving operators (excitation operators) play a central role. Nevertheless, the contraction rules in the frame of a generalized Wick theorem are derived, that hold for non-particle-number-conserving operators as well. The contraction rules are formulated and illustrated in terms of diagrams. The contractions involve the “residual n-particle density matrices” λ, which are the irreducible (non-factorizable) parts of the conventional n-particle density matrices γ, in the sense of a cumulant expansion for the density. A spinfree formulation is presented as well. The expression of the Hamiltonian in normal order with respect to a multiconfiguration reference function leads to a natural definition of a generalized Fock operator. MC-SCF-theory is easily worked out in this context. The paper concludes with a discussion of the excited configurations and the first-order interacting space, that underlies a perturbative coupled cluster type correction to the MCSCF function for an arbitrary reference function, and with general implications of the new formalism, that is related to “internally contracted multireference configuration interaction.” The present generalization of normal ordering is not only valid for arbitrary reference functions, but also if the reference state is an ensemble state.

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