Improved second-order Møller–Plesset perturbation theory by separate scaling of parallel- and antiparallel-spin pair correlation energies

A simple modification of second-order Møller–Plesset perturbation theory (MP2) to improve the description of molecular ground state energies is proposed. The total MP2 correlation energy is partitioned into parallel- and antiparallel-spin components which are separately scaled. The two parameters (scaling factors), whose values can be justified by basic theoretical arguments, have been optimized on a benchmark set of 51 reaction energies composed of 74 first-row molecules. It is found, that the new method performs significantly better than standard MP2: the rms [mean absolute error (MAE)] deviation drops from 4.6 (3.3) to 2.3 (1.8) kcal/mol. The maximum error is reduced from 13.3 to 5.1 kcal/mol. Significant…

• DF
  Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft