Search for: All records

We introduce an approach to treat localized correlated electronic states in the otherwise weakly correlated host medium. Here, the environment is dynamically downfolded on the correlated subspace. It is captured via renormalization of one and two quasiparticle interaction terms which are evaluated using many-body perturbation theory. We outline the strategy on how to take the dynamical effects into account by going beyond the static limit approximation. Further, we introduce an efficient stochastic implementation that enables treating the host environment with a large number of electrons at a minimal computational cost. For a small explicitly correlated subspace, the dynamical effects are critical. We demonstrate the methodology by reproducing optical excitations in the negatively charged NV center defect in diamond, that agree with experimental results.

The vertex function (Γ) within the Green’s function formalism encapsulates information about all higher-order electron–electron interaction beyond those mediated by density fluctuations. Herein, we present an efficient approach that embeds vertex corrections in the one-shot GW correlation self-energy for isolated and periodic systems. The vertex-corrected self-energy is constructed through the proposed separation–propagation–recombination procedure: the electronic Hilbert space is separated into an active space and its orthogonal complement denoted as the “rest;” the active component is propagated by a space-specific effective Hamiltonian different from the rest. The vertex corrections are introduced by a rescaled time-dependent nonlocal exchange interaction. The direct Γ correction to the self-energy is further updated by adjusting the rescaling factor in a self-consistent post-processing cycle. Our embedding method is tested mainly on donor–acceptor charge-transfer systems. The embedded vertex effects consistently and significantly correct the quasiparticle energies of the gap-edge states. The fundamental gap is generally improved by 1–3 eV upon the one-shot GW approximation. Furthermore, we provide an outlook for applications of (embedded) vertex corrections in calculations of extended solids.

We introduce three developments within the stochastic many-body perturbation theory: efficient evaluation of off-diagonal self-energy terms, construction of Dyson orbitals, and stochastic constrained random phase approximation. The stochastic approaches readily handle systems with thousands of atoms. We use them to explore the electronic states of twisted bilayer graphene (tBLG) characterized by giant unit cells and correlated electronic states. We document the formation of electron localization under compression; weakly correlated states are merely shifted in energy. We demonstrate how to efficiently downfold the correlated subspace on a model Hamiltonian with a screened frequency-dependent two-body interaction. For the 6° tBLG system, the onsite interactions are between 200 and 300 meV under compression. The Dyson orbitals exhibit spatial distribution similar to the mean-field single-particle states. Under pressure, the electron-electron interactions increase in the localized states; however, the dynamical screening does not fully balance the dominant bare Coulomb interaction.