Localized Polycentric Orbital Basis Set for Quantum Monte Carlo Calculations Derived from the Decomposition of Kohn-Sham Optimized Orbitals

In this work, we present a simple decomposition scheme of the Kohn-Sham optimized orbitals which is able to provide a reduced basis set, made of localized polycentric orbitals, specifically designed for Quantum Monte Carlo. The decomposition follows a standard Density functional theory (DFT) calculation and is based on atomic connectivity and shell structure. The new orbitals are used to construct a compact correlated wave function of the Slater–Jastrow form which is optimized at the Variational Monte Carlo level and then used as the trial wave function for a final Diffusion Monte Carlo accurate energy calculation. We are able, in this way, to capture the basic information on the real system brought by the Kohn-Sham orbitals and use it for the calculation of the ground state energy within a strictly variational method. Here, we show test calculations performed on some small selected systems to assess the validity of the proposed approach in a molecular fragmentation, in the calculation of a barrier height of a chemical reaction and in the determination of intermolecular potentials. The final Diffusion Monte Carlo energies are in very good agreement with the best literature data within chemical accuracy.