Correcting basis set incompleteness in wave function correlation energy by dressing electronic Hamiltonian with an effective short-range interaction

Abstract: We propose a general approach to reducing basis set incompleteness error in electron correlation energy calculations. The correction is computed alongside the correlation energy in a single calculation by modifying the electron interaction operator with an effective short-range electron-electron interaction. Our approach is based on a local mapping between the Coulomb operator projected onto a finite basis and a long-range interaction represented by the error function with a local range-separated parameter, originally introduced by Giner et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 149, 194301 (2018)]. The complementary short-range interaction, included in the Hamiltonian, effectively accounts for the Coulomb interaction missing in a given basis. As a numerical demonstration, we apply the method with complete active space wavefunctions. Correlation energies are computed using two distinct approaches: the linearized adiabatic connection (AC0) method and n-electron valence state second-order perturbation theory (NEVPT2). We obtain encouraging results for the dissociation energies of test molecules, with accuracy in a triple-$\zeta$ basis set comparable to or exceeding that of uncorrected AC0 or NEVPT2 energies in a quintuple-$\zeta$ basis set.