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Relativistic coupled-cluster calculations of the ionization potential, dissociation energy, and excited electronic states under 35,000 cm$^{-1}$ are presented for the actinium monofluoride (AcF) molecule. The ionization potential is calculated to be IP$_e=48,866$ cm$^{-1}$, and the ground state is confirmed to be a closed-shell singlet and thus strongly sensitive to the $\mathcal{T}$,$\mathcal{P}$-violating nuclear Schiff moment of the Ac nucleus. Radiative properties and transition dipole moments from the ground state are identified for several excited states, achieving an uncertainty of $\sim$450 cm$^{-1}$ for the excitation energies. For higher-lying states that are not directly accessible from the ground state, possible two-step excitation pathways are proposed. The calculated branching ratios and Franck-Condon factors are used to investigate the suitability of AcF for direct laser cooling. The lifetime of the metastable $(1)^3\Delta_1$ state, which can be used in experimental searches of the electric dipole moment of the electron, is estimated to be of order 1 ms.

A simple procedure to incorporate one-loop quantum electrodynamic (QED) corrections into the generalized (Gatchina) nonlocal shape-consistent relativistic pseudopotential model is described. The pseudopotentials for Lu, Tl, and Ra replacing only inner core shells (with principal quantum numbers $n\le 3$ for the two former elements and $n\le 4$ for the latter one) are derived from the solutions of reference atomic SCF problems with the Dirac-Coulomb-Breit Hamiltonian to which the model Lamb shift operator added. QED contributions to atomic valence excitation energies evaluated at the SCF level are demonstrated to exceed the errors introduced by the pseudopotential approximation itself by an order of magnitude. Pilot applications of the new model to calculations of excitation energies of two-valence-electron atomic systems using the intermediate-Hamiltonian relativistic Fock space coupled cluster method reformulated here for incomplete main model spaces are reported. Implications for high-accuracy molecular excited state calculations are discussed.

The changes in the mean-square charge radius (relative to 209Bi), magnetic dipole, and electric quadrupole moments of 187,188,189,191Bi were measured using the in-source resonance-ionization spectroscopy technique at ISOLDE (CERN). A large staggering in radii was found in 187,188,189Big, manifested by a sharp radius increase for the ground state of 188Bi relative to the neighboring 187,189Big. A large isomer shift was also observed for 188Bim. Both effects happen at the same neutron number, N=105, where the shape staggering and a similar isomer shift were observed in the mercury isotopes. Experimental results are reproduced by mean-field calculations where the ground or isomeric states were identified by the blocked quasiparticle configuration compatible with the observed spin, parity, and magnetic moment. ispartof: Physical Review Letters vol:127 issue:9 ispartof: location:United States status: published

We report the value of the electric quadrupole moment of $^{209}\mathrm{Bi}$ extracted from the atomic data. For this, we performed electronic structure calculations for the ground $^{4}S_{3/2}^{o}$ and excited $^{2}P_{3/2}^{o}$ states of atomic Bi using the Dirac-Coulomb-Breit Hamiltonian and the Fock space coupled-cluster method with single, double, and full triple amplitudes for the three-particle Fock space sector. The value of the quadrupole moment of $^{209}\mathrm{Bi}, Q{(}^{209}\mathrm{Bi})=\ensuremath{-}418(6)$ mb, derived from the resulting electric field gradient values and available atomic hyperfine splittings is in excellent agreement with molecular data. Due to the availability of the hyperfine constants for unstable isotopes of Bi, current atomic calculation allows also to correct their quadrupole moments.

Modern molecular spectroscopy of diatomic molecules is the precision study of the structure and dynamics of electronically excited states of isolated molecules in the gas phase. At the same time, the energy, radiation, magnetic, and electrical characteristics of excited molecules, which are of interest for different physicochemical applications, must be determined and predicted at the experimental (spectral) level of accuracy in a broad range of electron vibrational and rotational excitations. This problem cannot be solved within spectroscopy’s traditional adiabatic approximation, since a large number of intramolecular interactions (so-called perturbations) inevitably distorts not only the regular energy structure of different levels but he nodal structure of the corresponding wave functions as well. The most accurate solution to both direct and inverse spectroscopic problems with respect to perturbed molecular states is based on constructing a reduced system of the coupled radial Schrodinger equations encountered in the quantum-mechanical modeling of the nonadiabatic interaction of electronic states. The nonadiabatic approach can be employed successfully only through the joint use of precision spectroscopic data and highly precise calculations of electronic structure.

The electron affinity (EA) of superheavy element Og is calculated by the use of the relativistic Fock-space coupled cluster (FSCC) and configuration interaction methods. The FSCC cluster operator expansion included single, double, and triple excitations treated in a non-perturbative manner. The Gaunt and retardation electron-electron interactions are taken into account. Both methods yield the results that are in agreement with each other. The quantum electrodynamics correction to EA is evaluated using the model Lamb-shift operator approach. The electron affinity of Og is obtained to be 0.076(4) eV., 11 pages, 5 tables, 3 figures

The YbOH triatomic molecule can be efficiently used to measure the electron electric dipole moment, which violates time-reversal (T) and spatial parity (P) symmetries of fundamental interactions [I. Kozyryev, N.R. Hutzler, Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 133002 (2017)]. We study another mechanism of the T,P-violation in the YbOH molecule - the electron-electron interaction mediated by the low-mass axiolike particle. For this, we calculate the molecular constant that characterizes this interaction and use it to estimate the expected magnitude of the effect to be measured. It is shown that this molecular constant has the same order of magnitude as the corresponding molecular constant corresponding to the axion-mediated electron-nucleus interaction. According to our estimation, an experiment on YbOH will allow one to set updated laboratory constraints on the CP-violating electron-axion coupling constants.

Reliable information on transition matrix elements of various property operators between molecular electronic states is of crucial importance for predicting spectroscopic, electric, magnetic and radiative properties of molecules. The finite-field technique is a simple and rather accurate tool for evaluating transition matrix elements of first-order properties in the frames of the Fock space relativistic coupled cluster approach. We formulate and discuss the extension of this technique to the case of transitions between the electronic states associated with different sectors of the Fock space. Pilot applications to the evaluation of transition dipole moments between the closed-shell-like states (vacuum sector) and those dominated by single excitations of the Fermi vacuum (the 1h1p sector) in heavy atoms (Xe and Hg) and simple molecules of heavy element compounds (I2 and TlF) are reported.

The determination of the matrix elements of single-electron operators for the transitions between electronic states (primarily, the dipole moments of electron transitions) is one of the critical problems in simulating the atomic and molecular spectra. In this study, the efficiency of a simple version of the finite-field method for calculating these values within the Fock-space coupled-cluster theory has been investigated.

Chemical shifts of the Kα1 and Kα2 lines (the 2p3/2 → 1s1/2 and 2p1/2 → 1s1/2 transitions, respectively) of the X-ray emission spectrum of the Yb atom in fluorides have been calculated by ab initio modeling the electronic structure. The valence transition Yb(II) → Yb(III) has been analyzed by examples of YbF2, YbF3, and Yb2F4 molecules and YbF2+ cation. The relativistic pseudopotential and basis sets corresponding to it have been constructed for the ytterbium atom. They were used in calculations by the two-component noncollinear version of the density functional theory (DFT) with the PBE0 exchange-correlation functional. Results for the three-coordinated Yb(II) in the FYbF2YbF dimer demonstrated a very weak dependence of the chemical shift on the coordination number of the Yb atom and on the molecular association of ytterbium difluoride. Chemical shifts of the X-ray emission spectrum for the ytterbium compound are related mainly to the change in the occupation of the 4 f shell.

Chemical shifts of the Kα1 and Kβ1 lines of X-ray-emission spectra of niobium in oxides (Nb2O5)n, n = 1–4, relative to metal Nb have been calculated. Stoichiometric clusters (Nb2O5)n the electronic structure of which was calculated using accurate relativistic pseudopotentials and two-component version of the density functional theory are considered as prototypes for modeling different crystal forms of niobium(V) oxide. The chemical shifts were calculated using the method based on using the property of approximate proportionality of valence spinors in the core region of the heavy atom [11]. Corrections to values of chemical shifts have been determined with allowance for deviations from the abovementioned proportionality. Rapid convergence of results with respect to the size of the niobium oxide cluster has been demonstrated.

The Ti:Saphire laser operated within 13800 - 11800 cm − 1 range was used to excite the c 3 Σ + state of KCs molecule directly from the ground X 1 Σ + state. The laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) spectra of the c 3 Σ + → a 3 Σ + transition were recorded with Fourier-transform spectrometer within 8000 to 10000 cm − 1 range. Overall 673 rovibronic term values belonging to both e / f -components of the c 3 Σ + ( Ω = 1 ± ) state of 39 KCs, covering vibrational levels from v = 0 to about 45, and rotational levels J ∈ [ 11 , 149 ] were determined with the accuracy of about 0.01 cm − 1 ; among them 7 values for 41 KCs. The experimental term values with v ∈ [ 0 , 22 ] were involved in a direct point-wise potential reconstruction for the c 3 Σ + ( Ω = 1 ± ) state, which takes into account the Ω -doubling effect caused by the spin-rotational interaction with the nearby c 3 Σ + ( Ω = 0 − ) state. The analysis and interpretation were facilitated by the fully-relativistic coupled cluster calculation of the potential energy curves for the B 1 Π , c 3 Σ + , and b 3 Π states, as well as of spin-forbidden c − X and spin-allowed c − a transition dipole moments; radiative lifetimes and vibronic branching ratios were calculated. A comparison of relative intensity distributions measured in vibrational c → a LIF progressions with their theoretical counterparts unambiguously confirms the vibrational assignment suggested in [J. Szczepkowski, et al., JQSRT, 204, 133–137 (2018)].

We report first-principle based studies of the adsorption interaction of astatine species on a gold surface. These studies are aimed primarily at the support and interpretation of gas chromatographic experiments with superheavy elements, tennessine (Ts, Z = 117 ), a heavier homologue of At, and possibly its pseudo-homologue nihonium (Nh, Z = 113 ). We use gold clusters with up to 69 atoms to simulate the adsorption sites and estimate the desorption energies of At & AtOH from a stable gold (1 1 1) surface. To describe the electronic structure of At - Au n and AtOH - Au n complexes, we combine accurate shape-consistent relativistic pseudopotentials and non-collinear two-component relativistic density functional theory. The predicted desorption energies of At and AtOH on gold are 130 ± 10 kJ/mol and 90 ± 10 kJ/mol, respectively. These results confirm the validity of the estimates derived from chromatographic data ( 147 ± 15 kJ/mol for At, and 100 - 10 + 20 kJ/mol for AtOH).

The spin-orbit (SO) interactions in low-lying electronic states of the LiM (M = Na, K, Rb, Cs) molecular series are studied through ab initio calculations of potential energy curves and SO coupling matrix elements as functions of the interatomic distance, R. Two different approaches are employed: (a) the Fock-space relativistic coupled-cluster calculations (FS-RCC) which directly yield full relativistic energies, Urel(R); the SO coupling functions, ξso(R), are extracted a posteriori through projecting scalar-relativistic wave functions onto the subspaces spanned by their full-relativistic counterparts; (b) the evaluation of the scalar-relativistic electronic energies, Usr(R), and relevant ξso(R) functions using the configuration interaction method with core-valence correlation accounted for using core polarization potentials (CI-CPP). The SO-free potentials and SO coupling functions obtained within the framework of both approaches are in good agreement with each other and their prior theoretical and empirical counterparts.

Radium compounds have attracted recently considerable attention due to both development of experimental techniques for high-precision laser spectroscopy of molecules with short-lived nuclei and amenability of certain radium compounds for direct cooling with lasers. Currently, radium monofluoride (RaF) is one of the most studied molecules among the radium compounds, both theoretically and recently also experimentally. Complementary studies of further diatomic radium derivatives are highly desired to assess the influence of chemical substitution on diverse molecular parameters, especially on those connected with laser cooling, such as vibronic transition probabilities, and those related to violations of fundamental symmetries. In this article high-precision \emph{ab initio} studies of electronic and vibronic levels of diatomic radium monochloride (RaCl) are presented. Recently developed approaches for treating electronic correlation with Fock-space coupled cluster methods are applied for this purpose. Theoretical results are compared to an early experimental investigation by Lagerqvist and used to partially reassign the experimentally observed transitions and molecular electronic levels of RaCl. Effective constants of $\mathcal{P}$-odd hyperfine interaction $W_{\rm{a}}$ and $\mathcal{P,T}$-odd scalar-pseudoscalar nucleus-electron interaction $W_{\rm{s}}$ in the ground electronic state of RaCl are estimated within the framework of a quasirelativistic Zeroth-Order Regular Approximation approach and compared to parameters in RaF and RaOH., Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures, 5 tables

Modern challenges arising in the fields of theoretical and experimental physics require new powerful tools for high-precision electronic structure modelling; one of the most perspective tools is the relativistic Fock space coupled cluster method (FS-RCC). Here we present a new extensible implementation of the FS-RCC method designed for modern parallel computers. The underlying theoretical model, algorithms and data structures are discussed. The performance and scaling features of the implementation are analyzed. The software developed allows to achieve a completely new level of accuracy for prediction of properties of atoms and molecules containing heavy and superheavy nuclei.

The 4503 rovibronic term values belonging to the mutually perturbed $A^1\Sigma^+_u$ and $b^3\Pi_u$ states of Cs$_2$ were extracted from laser induced fluorescence (LIF) $A\sim b\rightarrow X^1\Sigma^+_g$ Fourier transform spectra with the 0.01 cm$^{-1}$ uncertainty. The experimental term values of the $A^1\Sigma^+_u\sim b^3\Pi_u$ complex covering the rotational levels $J\in [4,395]$ in the excitation energy range $[9655,13630]$ cm$^{-1}$ were involved into coupled-channel (CC) deperturbation analysis. The deperturbation model takes explicitly into account spin-orbit coupling of the $A^1\Sigma^+_u(A0^+_u)$ and $b^3\Pi^+_{0_u}(b0^+_u)$ states as well as spin-rotational interaction between the $\Omega=0$, $1$ and $2$ components of the $b^3\Pi^+_{\Omega_u}$ state. The \emph{ab initio} relativistic calculations on the low-lying electronic states of Cs$_2$ were accomplished in the framework of Fock space relativistic coupled cluster (FSRCC) approach to provide the interatomic potentials of the interacting $A0^+_u$ and $b0^+_u$ states as well as the relevant $A\sim b$ spin-orbit coupling function. To validate the present CC deperturbation analysis solely obtained by energy-based data, the $A\sim b \to X(v^{\prime\prime}_X)$ LIF intensity distributions were measured and compared with their theoretical counterparts obtained by means of the non-adiabatic vibrational wave functions of the $A\sim b$ complex and the FSRCC $A\sim b \to X$ transition dipole moments calculated by the finite-field method.

The spin-forbidden a 3 Π − X 1 Σ + , a ′ 3 Σ + − X 1 Σ + and spin-allowed A 1 Π − X 1 Σ + electronic transitions dipole moments of carbon monoxide have been ab initio studied in the framework of multi-reference Fock space coupled cluster method combined with the finite-field approach and the generalized relativistic pseudo-potential model for the effective introducing the relativity in all-electron correlation treatment. Radiative lifetimes, τ i ( v ′ , J ′ ) , of the upper i ∈ [ a 3 Π , A 1 Π ] states were evaluated as a function of vibrational, v ′ , and rotational, J ′ , quantum numbers. The τ a -values derived for the triplet a 3 Π 1 ( 0 , 1 ) and a 3 Π 2 ( 0 , 2 ) states at the highest level of computation were found to be 2.59 and 142 ms, which are near perfect agreement with their best experimental counterparts (J. J. Gilijamse, et al., J. Chem. Phys., 127, 221102 (2007)). The intercombination a − X , a ′ − X transition probabilities were numerically proved to be proportional to α 2 , where α = e 2 / ℏ c is the fine structure constant.

We observed the A 1 Σ + ∼ b 3 Π → a 3 Σ + / X 1 Σ + laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) of the RbCs molecule excited from the ground X 1 Σ + state by the Ti:Sapphire laser. The LIF spectra from the common perturbed levels of the singlet-triplet A ∼ b complex was recorded by the Fourier-transform (FT) spectrometer with the instrumental resolution of 0.03 cm − 1 . The relative intensity distribution in the rotationally resolved A ∼ b → a 3 Σ + ( v a ) / X 1 Σ + ( v X ) progressions was measured, and their branching ratio was found to be about of 1 ÷ 5 × 10 − 4 in the bound region of the a 3 Σ + and X 1 Σ + states. The experiment was complemented with the scalar- and full-relativistic calculations of the A / b − X / a transition dipole moments (TDMs) as functions of internuclear distance. The relative systematic error in the resulting ab initio TDM functions evaluated for the strong A − X transition was estimated as few percent in the energy region, where the experimental LIF intensities are relevant. The relative spectral sensitivity of the FT registration system, operated with the InGaAs diode detector and CaF beam-splitter, was calibrated in the range [6 500, 12 000] cm − 1 by a comparison of experimental intensities in the long A ∼ b → X(vX) LIF progressions of the K2 and KCs molecules with their theoretical counterparts evaluated using the ab initio A − X TDMs. Both experimental and theoretical transition probabilities can be employed to improve the stimulated Raman adiabatic passage process, a → A ∼ b → X, which is exploited for a laser assembling of ultracold RbCs molecules.

The four-component relativistic Fock space coupled cluster method is used to describe the magnetic hyperfine interaction in low-lying electronic states of the KCs molecule. Both diagonal and off-diagonal matrix elements as functions of the internuclear separation $R$ are calculated within the finite-field scheme. The resulting matrix elements exhibit very weak dependence on $R$ for the separations exceeding 8 \AA , whereas in the vicinity of the ground-state equilibrium the deviation of molecular HFS matrix elements from the atomic values reaches 15\%. The dependence of the computed HFS couplings on the level of core correlation treatment is discussed., Comment: 3 figures

The Fock space relativistic coupled cluster method (FS-RCC) is one of the most promising tools of electronic structure modeling for atomic and molecular systems containing heavy nuclei. Until recently, capabilities of the FS-RCC method were severely restricted by the fact that only single and double excitations in the exponential parametrization of the wave operator were considered. We report the design and the first computer implementation of FS-RCC schemes with full and simplified non-perturbative account for triple excitations in the cluster operator. Numerical stability of the new computational scheme and thus its applicability to a wide variety of molecular electronic states is ensured using the dynamic shift technique combined with the extrapolation to zero-shift limit. Pilot applications to atomic (Tl, Pb) and molecular (TlH) systems reported in the paper indicate that the breakthrough in accuracy and predictive power of the electronic structure calculations for heavy-element compounds can be achieved. Moreover, the described approach can provide a firm basis for high-precision modeling of heavy molecular systems with several open shells, including actinide compounds.

We present a study of electronic structure and chemical properties of monohydroxide molecules of element 113 (E113), Tl, and At employing accurate relativistic pseudpotentials. Electron correlations are treated at the coupled cluster (CCSD(T)) level, and spin-dependent relativistic effects included using two-component relativistic density functional theory. Our estimates for hydroxyl group elimination at 0 K for E113OH, TlOH, and AtOH are, respectively, 1.95, 3.31, and 1.80 eV. We discuss striking differences in the chemical properties of E113 and Tl and certain similarities in the behavior of E113(I) and At(I).

Actinide compounds are very intriguing objects for the quantum chemistry because, on the one hand, these compounds are of great scientific and technological interest and, on the other hand, quantitative first principle based modeling of their electronic structure is extremely difficult because of strong relativistic effects and complicated electron correlation pattern. The efficiency of high-level all-electron relativistic methods in applications to complex actinide systems of practical interest is questionable and more economical but sufficiently accurate approaches to the studies of such systems are preferable. Recently, generalized relativistic effective core potentials (GRECPs) have been generated for actinides to perform accurate calculations of electronic structure and properties of their compounds with moderate computational cost. The accuracy of different GRECP versions is analyzed in atomic calculations and their applications to molecular and cluster calculations are reviewed. The results are compared with available experimental data and other theoretical studies. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Ground-state equilibrium geometries, energetics, and vibrational frequencies of AnO3 molecules, An = Pu through Cf, and their isomers are calculated using an accurate small-core pseudopotential model and the two-component relativistic density functional theory. The qualitative features of chemical bonding in these molecules are discussed in terms of oxidation states and bond orders. The actinide oxidation state (VI) is reached only in the plutonium trioxide molecule, whereas heavier actinide atoms in T-shaped trioxide molecules should be considered as pentavalent. At least at low temperatures, PuO3 and, to a lesser degree, AmO3 and BkO3 molecules should be stable both with respect to the isomerization into oxoperoxides or oxosuperoxides and the decay into dioxides and molecular oxygen. These trioxides can form dimers with significant (above 250 kJ mol(-1)) dissociation energies; the oxidation states of actinide atoms in the lowest-energy configurations of these dimers coincide with those in the corresponding monomers. The ability to reach high oxidation states in oxygen compounds gradually decreases from Pu onwards, with the only exception being the unexpectedly stable Bk(v)O3.

The review covers main methods of the first-principle based electronic structure simulation used for the prediction of the properties of superheavy element atoms and compounds. The areas of applicability of these methods and the principal and practical limitations of their accuracy are analyzed. The regularities in the changes of the chemical properties on going from superheavy elements to their closest homologs are discussed.

Molecular properties of the thallium monocyanide (Tl&middot, CN) system in its ground electronic state are studied using high-precision ab initio relativistic two-component pseudopotential replacing 60 inner-core electrons of Tl. A relativistic coupled-cluster method with single, double and perturbative triple amplitudes is employed to account for electronic correlations. Extrapolation of results to the complete basis set limit is used for all studied properties. The global potential energy minimum of Tl&middot, CN corresponds to the linear cyanide (TlCN) isomer, while the non-rigid isocyanide-like (TlNC) structure lies by approximately 11 kJ/mol higher in energy. The procedure of restoration of the wavefunction in the &ldquo, core&rdquo, region of Tl atom was applied to calculate the interaction of the Tl nuclear Schiff moment with electrons. The parameter X of the interaction of the Tl nuclear Schiff moment with electrons in the linear TlCN molecule equals 7150 a.u. The prospects of using the TlCN molecule for the experimental detection of the nuclear Schiff moment are discussed.

Equilibrium structures and energetics of various isomers of molecules with stoichiometry An·4O (An = Pu, Am, and Cm) are studied through electronic structure calculations at the relativistic density functional theory level in the frame of an accurate small-core pseudopotential model. In all cases, the global minima of the An·4O potential energy surfaces correspond to dioxo-superoxido-like species, [AnO2](O2). The stability of the “true” oxides AnO4 decreases from Pu to Cm, whereas the isomers with two O2 groups become relatively more stable. Correlation between the formal oxidation states and the Bader net charges of actinide atoms is discussed. Structural parameters, vibrational frequencies and charge and spin magnetization density distributions are analyzed in order to characterize the different isomers in chemical terms. Decrease of the An oxidation states along the An series is evident.

We report first-principle based studies of element 113 (E113) interactions with gold aimed primarily at estimating the adsorption energy in thermochromatographic experiments. The electronic structure of E113-Aun systems was treated within the accurate shape-consistent small core relativistic pseudopotential framework at the level of non-collinear relativistic density functional theory (RDFT) with specially optimised Gaussian basis sets. We used gold clusters with up to 58 atoms to simulate the adsorption site on the stable Au(111) surface. Stabilization of the E113-Aun binding energy and the net Bader charge of E113 and the neighboring Au atoms with respect to n indicated the cluster size used was appropriate. The resulting adsorption energy estimates lie within the 1.0–1.2 eV range, substantially lower than previously reported values.

The electronic structure and energetics were calculated for molecules of binary compounds of element 120 and its homologs with common elements strongly differing in chemical properties. The calculations were performed within the framework of the relativistic density functional theory using the model of precision two-component atomic core pseudopotentials. The results obtained show that all the examined compounds of element 120 should differ from the corresponding compounds of the known heavy metals of the second group (Sr-Ra) in lower strengths and larger lengths of chemical bonds. Therefore, one can suppose that element 120 will be, on the whole, more inert chemically than its nearest homologs.

Structures and energetics of the molecular anions UF 6 − , UF5/−, UF4/−, UO3/t-, and UO2/t- were calculated using the density functional theory within the framework of the precision two-component relativistic pseudopotential model. Differences in the structures of the ions and the corresponding neutral molecules were analyzed, and the adiabatic electron affinities of these molecules were estimated.

The potential curve, dissociation energy, equilibrium internuclear distance, and spectroscopic constants for the ground state of the Ca2 molecule are calculated with the help of the generalized relativistic effective core potential method, which allows one to exclude the inner core electrons from the calculations and to take the relativistic effects into account effectively. Extensive generalized correlation basis sets were constructed and used. The scalar relativistic coupled cluster method with corrections for high-order cluster amplitudes is used for the correlation treatment. The results are analyzed and compared with the experimental data and corresponding all-electron results. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Pilot applications of Pade-resummed fourth-order many-body perturbation theory to the description of chemical bonds with strong contributions from the interactions of filled d-shells (Au–Au, Au–Hg, and Hg–Hg) are reported. The employed Pade approximants, especially the constrained [0/1, 1] quadratic one, ensure radical improvements of accuracy with respect to the partial summation. The non-separability problem is discussed and bypassed through the direct resummation of perturbative expansions for differential correlation energies.

The conditions are analyzed under which the dissociative attachment of electrons determines the properties of a nonequilibrium glow discharge plasma containing metal halides. The possibility of applying a simplified approach for the estimation of dissociative attachment and vibrational excitation cross sections of metal halides by combining quantum and semiclassical methods is discussed. By way of example, processes in a nonequilibrium Ar-SnI2 plasma are analyzed in detail.

Relativistic pseudopotential approach to the electronic structure simulation of superheavy elements (SHE) compounds is presented. Advanced formulations of this approach leaving both valence and outer-core electronic shells for explicit treatment give rise to simple and efficient computational techniques ensuring highly accurate description of most chemical properties of SHE. At present, the errors due to the use of approximate methods for solving the correlation problem for a subsystem of valence electrons are much larger than those stemming from the pseudopotential approximation itself. Recent applications to the studies of the chemistry of elements 112 (eka-Hg) and 114 (eka-Pb) are reviewed; properties of these elements and their lighter homologues, Hg and Pb, are compared.

The ground electronic state of the eka-mercury dimer (E1122) was studied within the model of generalized relativistic effective core potentials. A combined procedure based on describing correlation effects by the scalar relativistic coupled-cluster method and on taking into account spin-dependent interactions by means of density-functional theory was used in the calculations. A high accuracy of this approach was confirmed by the results of similar calculations for the mercury dimer. It was found that the bond length is nearly 0.4 A shorter in E1122 than in Hg2 and that the dissociation energy of the former is approximately twice as high as that of the latter dimer.

An analysis of theoretical studies on the electronic structures and chemical properties of superheavy elements has been performed. It is noted that the specific features of calculations of molecular systems including superheavy element atoms are determined by the exceptional role of relativistic effects that should be taken into account at all stages of electronic structure modelling. The main approximations for relativistic Hamiltonians and general approaches to the solution of the many-electron problem for both superheavy element atoms and their compounds have been considered and compared. The results of modelling the chemical properties of superheavy elements by ab initio methods and density functional theory have been analysed.

Present-day computational techniques provide a possibility of evaluating properties of macrosystems using ab initio quantum chemistry and theories of elementary processes. Physical and chemical phenomena on very different timescales have to be taken into account (excitation, emission, chemical reactions, diffusion) at different levels of refining. This refining covers a very wide region of parameters starting from the structure of species up to the macro chemical mechanism of their conversion. This multilevel approach is described in detail in the paper and includes interaction and data transfer between different levels of phenomena description. In the framework of the approach, unknown properties of molecules, ions and atoms (structure, potential energy curves, transition dipole moments) are calculated based on quantum-chemical methods. The calculation results are used to evaluate rate characteristics of physical and chemical processes. The developed kinetic state-to-state scheme is then used to calculate the macro properties of the system under investigation. As an example of the multilevel approach, the emission properties of the Ar–GaI3 positive column discharge plasma were calculated using the Chemical Work Bench computational environment. The calculations yield the electron energy balance and emission efficiency as functions of plasma parameters.

Electron impact excitation cross sections of dipole-allowed transitions in diatomic molecules have been evaluated using the similarity function method allowing one to express cross sections through the oscillator strength of the transition and some universal function of the reduced incident electron energy. The necessary characteristics of the molecular terms involved and transition dipoles were determined by ab initio electronic structure calculations using the multireference configuration interaction technique or relativistic multipartitioning many-body perturbation theory. The results of specific calculations performed for CO and NO in a reasonable agreement with the available experimental data and the results of comprehensive quantum-mechanical calculations.