Cumulant Approximated Second-Order Perturbation Theory Based on the Density Matrix Renormalization Group for Transition Metal Complexes: A Benchmark Study

The complete active space second order perturbation theory (CASPT2) can be extended to larger active spaces by using the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) as solver. Two variants are commonly used: the costly DMRG-CASPT2 with exact 4-particle reduced density matrix (4-RDM) and the cheaper DMRG-cu(4)-CASPT2 in which the 4-cumulant is discarded. To assess the accuracy and limitations of the latter variant DMRG-cu(4)-CASPT2 we study the spin state energetics of iron porphyrin Fe(P) and its model compound FeL2, a model for the active center of NiFe hydrogenase, and manganese-oxo porphyrin MnO(P)(+); a series of excited states of chromium hexacarbonyl Cr(CO)6; and the interconversion of two Cu2O2(2+) isomers. Our results clearly show that PT2 on top of DMRG is essential in order to obtain quantitative results for transition metal complexes. Good results were obtained with DMRG-cu(4)-CASPT2 as compared to full CASPT2 and DMRG-CASPT2 in calculations with small- and medium-sized active spaces. In calculations with large-sized active spaces (∼30 active orbitals), the performance of DMRG-cu(4)-CASPT2 is less impressive due to the errors originating from both the finite number of renormalized states m and the 4-RDM approximation.