Toward Reliable Prediction of Hyperfine Coupling Constants Using Ab Initio Density Matrix Renormalization Group Method: Diatomic (2)Σ and Vinyl Radicals as Test Cases

Abstract

The density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) method is used in conjunction with the complete active space (CAS) procedure, the CAS configuration interaction (CASCI), and the CAS self-consistent field (CASSCF) to evaluate hyperfine coupling constants (HFCCs) for a series of diatomic (2)Σ radicals (BO, CO(+), CN, and AlO) and vinyl (C2H3) radical. The electron correlation effects on the computed HFCC values were systematically investigated using various levels of active space, which were increasingly extended from single valence space to large-size model space entailing double valence and at least single polarization shells. In addition, the core correlation was treated by including the core orbitals in active space. Reasonably accurate results were obtained by the DMRG-CASSCF method involving orbital optimization, while DMRG-CASCI calculations with Hartree-Fock orbitals provided poor agreement of the HFCCs with the experimental values. To achieve further insights into the accuracy of HFCC calculations, the orbital contributions to the total spin density were analyzed at a given nucleus, which is directly related to the FC term and is numerically sensitive to the level of correlation treatment and basis sets. The convergence of calculated HFCCs with an increasing number of renormalized states was also assessed. This work serves as the first study on the performance of the ab initio DMRG method for HFCC prediction.