A summary of the technical advances that are incorporated in the fourth major release of the Q-Chem quantum chemistry program is provided, covering approximately the last seven years. These include developments in density functional theory methods and algorithms, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) property evaluation, coupled cluster and perturbation theories, methods for electronically excited and openshell species, tools for treating extended environments, algorithms for walking on potential surfaces, analysis tools, energy and electron transfer modelling, parallel computing capabilities, and graphical user interfaces. In addition, a selection of example case studies that illustrate these capabilities is given. These include extensive benchmarks of the comparative accuracy of modern density functionals for bonded and non-bonded interactions, tests of attenuated second order Møller-Plesset (MP2) methods for intermolecular interactions, a variety of parallel performance benchmarks, and tests of the accuracy of implicit solvation models. Some specific chemical examples include calculations on the strongly correlated Cr 2 dimer, exploring zeolitecatalysed ethane dehydrogenation, energy decomposition analysis of a charged ter-molecular complex arising from glycerol photoionisation, and natural transition orbitals for a Frenkel exciton state in a nine-unit model of a self-assembling nanotube.Keywords quantum chemistry, software, electronic structure theory, density functional theory, electron correlation, computational modelling, Q-Chem Disciplines Chemistry CommentsThis article is from Molecular Physics: An International Journal at the Interface Between Chemistry and Physics 113 (2015): 184, doi:10.1080/00268976.2014. RightsWorks produced by employees of the U.S. Government as part of their official duties are not copyrighted within the U.S. The content of this document is not copyrighted. Authors 185A summary of the technical advances that are incorporated in the fourth major release of the Q-CHEM quantum chemistry program is provided, covering approximately the last seven years. These include developments in density functional theory methods and algorithms, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) property evaluation, coupled cluster and perturbation theories, methods for electronically excited and open-shell species, tools for treating extended environments, algorithms for walking on potential surfaces, analysis tools, energy and electron transfer modelling, parallel computing capabilities, and graphical user interfaces. In addition, a selection of example case studies that illustrate these capabilities is given. These include extensive benchmarks of the comparative accuracy of modern density functionals for bonded and non-bonded interactions, tests of attenuated second order Møller-Plesset (MP2) methods for intermolecular interactions, a variety of parallel performance benchmarks, and tests of the accuracy of implicit solvation models. Some specific chemical examples include calculations on the strongly corre...

Excitation gaps are of considerable significance in electronic structure theory. Two different gaps are of particular interest. The fundamental gap is defined by charged excitations, as the difference between the first ionization potential and the first electron affinity. The optical gap is defined by a neutral excitation, as the difference between the energies of the lowest dipole-allowed excited state and the ground state. Within many-body perturbation theory, the fundamental gap is the difference between the corresponding lowest quasi-hole and quasi-electron excitation energies, and the optical gap is addressed by including the interaction between a quasi-electron and a quasi-hole. A long-standing challenge has been the attainment of a similar description within density functional theory (DFT), with much debate on whether this is an achievable goal even in principle. Recently, we have constructed and applied a new approach to this problem. Anchored in the rigorous theoretical framework of the generalized Kohn-Sham equation, our method is based on a range-split hybrid functional that uses exact long-range exchange. Its main novel feature is that the range-splitting parameter is not a universal constant but rather is determined from first principles, per system, based on satisfaction of the ionization potential theorem. For finite-sized objects, this DFT approach mimics successfully, to the best of our knowledge for the first time, the quasi-particle picture of many-body theory. Specifically, it allows for the extraction of both the fundamental and the optical gap from one underlying functional, based on the HOMO-LUMO gap of a ground-state DFT calculation and the lowest excitation energy of a linear-response time-dependent DFT calculation, respectively. In particular, it produces the correct optical gap for the difficult case of charge-transfer and charge-transfer-like scenarios, where conventional functionals are known to fail. In this perspective, we overview the formal and practical challenges associated with gap calculations, explain our new approach and how it overcomes previous difficulties, and survey its application to a variety of systems.

We show how charge transfer excitations at molecular complexes can be calculated quantitatively using time-dependent density functional theory. Predictive power is obtained from range-separated hybrid functionals using nonempirical tuning of the range-splitting parameter. Excellent performance of this approach is obtained for a series of complexes composed of various aromatic donors and the tetracyanoethylene acceptor, paving the way to systematic nonempirical quantitative studies of charge-transfer excitations in real systems.

We present a broadly-applicable, physically-motivated first-principles approach to determining the fundamental gap of finite systems. The approach is based on using a range-separated hybrid functional within the generalized Kohn-Sham approach to density functional theory. Its key element is the choice of a range-separation parameter such that Koopmans' theorem for both the neutral and anionic is obeyed as closely as possible. We demonstrate the validity, accuracy, and advantages of this approach on first, second, and third row atoms, the oligoacene family of molecules, and a set of hydrogen-passivated silicon nanocrystals. This extends the quantitative usage of density functional theory to an area long believed to be outside its reach.