We present the GW100 set. GW100 is a benchmark set of the ionization potentials and electron affinities of 100 molecules computed with the GW method using three independent GW codes and different GW methodologies. The quasi-particle energies of the highest-occupied molecular orbitals (HOMO) and lowest-unoccupied molecular orbitals (LUMO) are calculated for the GW100 set at the G0W0@PBE level using the software packages TURBOMOLE, FHI-aims, and BerkeleyGW. The use of these three codes allows for a quantitative comparison of the type of basis set (plane wave or local orbital) and handling of unoccupied states, the treatment of core and valence electrons (all electron or pseudopotentials), the treatment of the frequency dependence of the self-energy (full frequency or more approximate plasmon-pole models), and the algorithm for solving the quasi-particle equation. Primary results include reference values for future benchmarks, best practices for convergence within a particular approach, and average error bars for the most common approximations.

Many-body perturbation theory in the GW approximation is a useful method for describing electronic properties associated with charged excitations. A hierarchy of GW methods exists, starting from non-self-consistent G 0 W 0 , through partial self-consistency in the eigenvalues (evscGW) and in the Green's function (scGW 0 ), to fully self-consistent GW (scGW). Here, we assess the performance of these methods for benzene, pyridine, and the diazines. The quasiparticle spectra are compared to photoemission spectroscopy (PES) experiments with respect to all measured particle removal energies and the ordering of the frontier orbitals. We find that the accuracy of the calculated spectra does not match the expectations based on their level of selfconsistency. In particular, for certain starting points G 0 W 0 and scGW 0 provide spectra in better agreement with the PES than scGW.

GW calculations with a fully self-consistent Green's function G and screened interaction W -based on the iterative solution of the Dyson equation-provide a consistent framework for the description of groundand excited-state properties of interacting many-body systems. We show that for closed-shell systems selfconsistent GW reaches the same final Green's function regardless of the initial reference state. Self-consistency systematically improves ionization energies and total energies of closed-shell systems compared to G 0 W 0 based on Hartree-Fock and (semi)local density-functional theory. These improvements also translate to the electron density, as exemplified by an improved description of dipole moments, and permit us to assess the quality of ground-state properties such as bond lengths and vibrational frequencies. Many-body perturbation theory (MBPT) 1 in the GW approximation of the electronic self-energy 2,3 is presently the state-of-the-art method for describing the spectral properties of solids. 4,5 Recently, it has steadily gained popularity for molecules and nanosystems. 6 In addition, MBPT provides a prescription to extract total energies and structural properties from the GW approximation and therefore is a consistent theoretical framework for single-particle spectra and total energies.Due to its numerical cost and algorithmic difficulties, the GW method has only recently been applied self-consistently (i.e., nonperturbatively) to atoms, 7 molecules, 8 and molecular transport. 6 Predominantly, GW calculations are still performed perturbatively (one-shot G 0 W 0 ) on a set of singleparticle orbitals and eigenvalues obtained from a preceding density-functional theory 9 (DFT) or Hartree-Fock (HF) calculation. This procedure introduces a considerable starting-point dependence, 10-12 which can be eliminated by iterating the Dyson equation to self-consistency. [6][7][8]13 The resulting selfconsistent GW (sc-GW ) framework is a conserving approximation in the sense of Baym and Kadanoff 14 (i.e., it satisfies momentum, energy, and particle number conservation laws). sc-GW gives total energies 15 free from the ambiguities of the G 0 W 0 scheme, in which the results depend on the chosen total energy functional. 7 However, as in any self-consistent theory, the question remains if the self-consistent solution of the Dyson equation is unique. This issue is fundamentally different from the initial-state dependence of G 0 W 0 . For HF (Ref. 16) and local-density approximation (LDA)/generalized gradient approximation + U (GGA + U ) (Ref. 17) calculations, it is well known that the self-consistency cycle can reach many local minima instead of the global minimum. Moreover, a previous sc-GW study for the Be atom showed that normconserving pseudopotential calculations do not produce the same final GW Green's function (and the corresponding ionization potential) as all-electron calculations. 18 In this Rapid Communication, we demonstrate certain key aspects of the sc-GW approximation for closed-shell molecules that make...

This paper describes an all-electron implementation of the self-consistent GW (sc-GW ) approach-i.e., based on the solution of the Dyson equation-in an all-electron numeric atom-centered orbital basis set. We cast Hedin's equations into a matrix form that is suitable for numerical calculations by means of (i) the resolution-of-identity technique to handle four-center integrals and (ii) a basis representation for the imaginary-frequency dependence of dynamical operators. In contrast to perturbative G 0 W 0 , sc-GW provides a consistent framework for ground-and excited-state properties and facilitates an unbiased assessment of the GW approximation. For excited states, we benchmark sc-GW for five molecules relevant for organic photovoltaic applications: thiophene, benzothiazole, 1,2,5-thiadiazole, naphthalene, and tetrathiafulvalene. At self-consistency, the quasiparticle energies are found to be in good agreement with experiment and, on average, more accurate than G 0 W 0 based on Hartree-Fock or density-functional theory with the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof exchange-correlation functional. Based on the Galitskii-Migdal total energy, structural properties are investigated for a set of diatomic molecules. For binding energies, bond lengths, and vibrational frequencies sc-GW and G 0 W 0 achieve a comparable performance, which is, however, not as good as that of exact-exchange plus correlation in the random-phase approximation and its advancement to renormalized second-order perturbation theory. Finally, the improved description of dipole moments for a small set of diatomic molecules demonstrates the quality of the sc-GW ground-state density. Many-body perturbation theory (MBPT) 1 in the GW approach for the electron self-energy 2-4 provides a natural framework for an ab initio, parameter-free description of photo-ionization processes and charged excitations. 5 In recent years, the GW approach has become a popular method for the computation of band gaps and charged excitation energies for extended 6,7 and finite systems. 8,9 In numerical implementations, following Hybertsen and Louie, 10 it is standard practice to treat the GW self-energy as a single-shot perturbation (G 0 W 0 ) acting on a Kohn-Sham (KS) or Hartree-Fock (HF) reference system. Thus, excitation energies are evaluated from first-order Feynman-Dyson perturbation theory as corrections to a set of single-particle eigenvalues.The popularity of the G 0 W 0 approximation stems from the substantial reduction in the complexity of Hedin's equations at first-order perturbation theory: The KS or HF eigenstates from a self-consistent field calculation can be used as basis functions and provide a convenient representation in which the noninteracting Green's function is diagonal. In this basis, only diagonal matrix elements of the self-energy are needed to evaluate quasiparticle corrections at first order. Thus, G 0 W 0 grants a considerable simplification of the linear algebra operations which is decisive for applying the theory to large molecules and solids.Although num...

We propose a scheme to obtain a system-dependent fraction of exact exchange (α) within the framework of hybrid density functional theory (DFT) that is consistent with the G₀W₀ approach, where G₀ is the noninteracting Green function of the system and W₀ the screened Coulomb interaction. We exploit the formally exact condition of exact DFT that the energy of the highest occupied molecular orbital corresponds to the ionization potential of a finite system. We identify the optimal α value for which this statement is obeyed as closely as possible and thereby remove the starting point dependence from the G₀W₀ method. This combined approach is essential for describing electron transfer (as exemplified by the TTF/TCNQ dimer) and yields the vertical ionization potentials of the G2 benchmark set with a mean absolute percentage error of only ≈3%

For the recent GW100 test set of molecular ionization energies, we present a comprehensive assessment of different GW methodologies: fully self-consistent GW (scGW), quasiparticle self-consistent GW (qsGW), partially self-consistent GW (scGW), perturbative GW (GW), and optimized GW based on the minimization of the deviation from the straight-line error (DSLE-min GW). We compare our GW calculations to coupled-cluster singles, doubles, and perturbative triples [CCSD(T)] reference data for GW100. We find scGW and qsGW ionization energies in excellent agreement with CCSD(T), with discrepancies typically smaller than 0.3 eV (scGW) and 0.2 eV (qsGW), respectively. For scGW and GW the deviation from CCSD(T) is strongly dependent on the starting point. We further relate the discrepancy between the GW ionization energies and CCSD(T) to the deviation from straight line error (DSLE). In DSLE-minimized GW calculations, the DSLE is significantly reduced, yielding a systematic improvement in the description of the ionization energies.

Transition metal oxides host a wealth of exotic phenomena ranging from charge, orbital and magnetic order to nontrivial topological phases and superconductivity. In order to translate these unique materials properties into device functionalities these materials must be doped; however, the nature of carriers and their conduction mechanism at the atomic scale remain unclear. Recent angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy investigations provided insight into these questions, revealing that the carriers of prototypical metal oxides undergo a transition from a polaronic liquid to a Fermi liquid regime with increasing doping. Here, by performing ab initio many-body calculations of angle-resolved photoemission spectra of titanium dioxide, we show that this transition originates from non-adiabatic polar electron–phonon coupling, and occurs when the frequency of plasma oscillations exceeds that of longitudinal-optical phonons. This finding suggests that a universal mechanism may underlie polaron formation in transition metal oxides, and provides a pathway for engineering emergent properties in quantum matter.

For the paradigmatic case of H(2) dissociation, we compare state-of-the-art many-body perturbation theory in the GW approximation and density-functional theory in the exact-exchange plus random-phase approximation (RPA) for the correlation energy. For an unbiased comparison and to prevent spurious starting point effects, both approaches are iterated to full self-consistency (i.e., sc-RPA and sc-GW). The exchange-correlation diagrams in both approaches are topologically identical, but in sc-RPA they are evaluated with noninteracting and in sc-GW with interacting Green functions. This has a profound consequence for the dissociation region, where sc-RPA is superior to sc-GW. We argue that for a given diagrammatic expansion, sc-RPA outperforms sc-GW when it comes to bond breaking. We attribute this to the difference in the correlation energy rather than the treatment of the kinetic energy.