Linear scaling coupled cluster and perturbation theories in the atomic orbital basis

We present a reformulation of the coupled cluster equations in the atomic orbital (AO) basis that leads to a linear scaling algorithm for large molecules. Neglecting excitation amplitudes in a screening process designed to achieve a target energy accuracy, we obtain an AO coupled cluster method which is competitive in terms of number of amplitudes with the traditional molecular orbital (MO) solution, even for small molecules. For large molecules, the decay properties of integrals and excitation amplitudes becomes evident and our AO method yields a linear scaling algorithm with respect to molecular size. We present benchmark calculations to demonstrate that our AO reformulation of the many-body electron correlation problem defeats the "exponential scaling wall'' that has characterized high-level MO quantum chemistry calculations for many years. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-9606(99)30341-X].