Application of variational reduced-density-matrix theory to organic molecules

Variational calculation of the two-electron reduced-density matrix (2-RDM), using a new first-order algorithm [D. A. Mazziotti, Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 213001 (2004)], is applied to medium-sized organic molecules. The calculations reveal systematic trends in the accuracy of the energy with well-known chemical concepts such as hybridization, electronegativity, and atomic size. Furthermore, correlation energies from hydrocarbon chains indicate that the calculation of the 2-RDM subject to two-positivity conditions is size extensive, that is, the energy grows linearly with the number of electrons. Because organic molecules have a well-defined set of functional groups, we employ the trends in energy accuracy of the functional groups to design a correction to the 2-RDM energy for an arbitrary organic molecule. We apply the 2-RDM calculations with the functional-group correction to a large set of organic molecules with different functional groups. Energies with millihartree accuracy are obtained both at equilibrium and nonequilibrium geometries.