Localized orbitals for optimal decomposition of molecular properties

We present the procedure for transforming delocalized molecular orbitals into the localized property-optimized orbitals (LPOs) designed for building the most accurate, in the Frobenius norm sense, approximation to the first-order reduced density matrix in form of the sum of localized monoatomic and diatomic terms. In this way, a decomposition of molecular properties into contributions associated with individual atoms and the pairs of atoms is obtained with the a priori known upper bound for the decomposition accuracy. Additional algorithm is proposed for obtaining the set of the Chemist's LPOs (CLPOs) containing a single localized orbital, with nearly double occupancy, per a pair of electrons. CLPOs form an idealized Lewis structure optimized for the closest possible reproduction of one-electron properties derived from the original many-electron wavefunction. The computational algorithms for constructing LPOs and CLPOs from a general wavefunction are presented and their implementation within the open-source freeware program JANPA (/) is discussed. The performance of the proposed procedures is assessed using the test set of density matrices of 33 432 small molecules obtained at both Hartree-Fock and second-order Moller-Plesset theory levels and excellent agreement with the chemist's Lewis-structure picture is found.