How the exchange energy can affect the power laws used to extrapolate the coupled cluster correlation energy to the thermodynamic limit

TL;DR

This paper investigates how exchange energy influences the power laws used to extrapolate coupled cluster correlation energies to the thermodynamic limit, revealing that combined scaling laws improve accuracy.

Contribution

It introduces a combined $N^{-1}$ and $N^{-2/3}$ scaling approach based on exchange energy effects in coupled cluster calculations.

Findings

Combined scaling laws outperform single power law extrapolations.

Exchange energy considerations lead to a $S(G)~G^2$ structure factor.

A new plane-wave cutoff scheme reduces noise in UEG calculations.

Abstract

Finite size error is commonly removed from coupled cluster theory calculations by $N^{-1}$ extrapolations over correlation energy calculations of different system sizes ($N$), where the $N^{-1}$ scaling comes from the total energy. However, previous studies in the quantum Monte Carlo community suggest an exchange-energy-like power law of $N^{-2/3}$ is also be present in the correlation energy when using the conventional Coulomb interaction. The rationale for this is that the total energy goes as $N^{-1}$ and the exchange energy as $N^{-2/3}$; so, the correlation energy should be a combination of the two power laws. Further, in coupled cluster theory, these power laws are related to the low $G$ scaling of the transition structure factor, $S(G)$, which is a property of the coupled cluster wavefunction calculated from the amplitudes. We show that data from coupled cluster doubles calculations on the uniform electron gas(UEG) fit a function with a low $G$ behavior of $S(G)$~$G$. The pre-factor for this linear term is derived from the exchange energy to be consistent with an $N^{-2/3}$ power law at large $N$. Incorporating the exchange structure factor into the transition structure factor results in a combined structure factor of $S(G)$~$G^2$, consistent with an $N^{-1}$ scaling of the exchange-correlation energy. We then look for the presence of an $N^{-2/3}$ power law in the energy. First, we develop a plane-wave cutoff scheme with less noise than the traditional basis set used for the UEG. Then, we collect data from a wide range of electron numbers and densities to systematically test 5 methods using $N^{-1}$ scaling, $N^{-2/3}$ scaling, or combinations of both scaling behaviors. We find that power laws that incorporate both $N^{-1}$ and $N^{-2/3}$ scaling perform better than either alone, especially when the pre-factor for $N^{-2/3}$ scaling can be found from exchange energy calculations.