High-Level Coupled-Cluster Energetics by Merging Moment Expansions with Selected Configuration Interaction

Abstract: Inspired by our earlier semi-stochastic work aimed at converging high-level coupled-cluster (CC) energetics [J. E. Deustua, J. Shen, and P. Piecuch, Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 223003 (2017); J. Chem. Phys. 154, 124103 (2021)], we propose a novel form of the CC($P$;$Q$) theory in which the stochastic Quantum Monte Carlo propagations, used to identify dominant higher-than-doubly excited determinants, are replaced by the selected configuration interaction (CI) approach using the CIPSI algorithm. The advantages of the resulting CIPSI-driven CC($P$;$Q$) methodology are illustrated by a few molecular examples, including the dissociation of $\mathrm{F_2}$ and the automerization of cyclobutadiene, where we recover the electronic energies corresponding to the CC calculations with a full treatment of singles, doubles, and triples based on the information extracted from compact CI wave functions originating from relatively inexpensive Hamiltonian diagonalizations.