An efficient combination of computational techniques for investigating electronic resonance states in molecules

Calculating electronic resonance states in molecules is a serious challenge to theory, because the treatment of both the scattering and the many-electron problem is a formidable task. A very promising approach, known as CAP/CI, consists of the combination of a complex absorbing potential with the method of configuration interaction. In this paper we propose the combination of three distinct computational techniques in order to boost the performance of CAP/CI. A complex absorbing potential that can be adjusted flexibly to the geometry of the molecular scattering target is presented and its representation in a Gaussian basis set is discussed. To handle the large-scale complex symmetric eigenvalue problem arising in CAP/CI, a subspace projection method is employed and its validity is shown. We advocate the use of parallel filter diagonalization for calculating the eigenvectors required in the projection step. The proposed techniques are applied to determine the lifetime of an autoionizing, inner-valence excited state of Ne-2(+). (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.