Parametric two-electron reduced-density-matrix method with application to diradical rectangular H₄

Parameterization of the two-electron reduced density matrix (2-RDM) has made possible the determination of electronic energies with greater accuracy and reduced computational cost compared to traditional electron-pair theories, including coupled cluster with single and double excitations [D.A. Mazziotti, Phys. Rev. Lett. 101 (2008) 253002]. We apply the method to an H₄ model system, a rectangular arrangement of two H₂ monomers (P4), which is often used for benchmark calculations of multireference methods. At the square geometry, H₄ becomes a diradical. We find that the parametric 2-RDM method obtains occupation numbers of 0.5471 and 0.4489 for the Nth and (N+1)th natural orbitals, respectively, which indicate diradical character. Energies and orbital occupation numbers obtained from the parametric 2-RDM method are found to be more accurate than single-reference wavefunction methods of comparable computational cost. We report energies and natural orbital occupation numbers for several geometries in the rectangular H₄ system.