A recent development in quantum chemistry has established the quantum mutual information between orbitals as a major descriptor of electronic structure. This has already facilitated remarkable improvements in numerical methods and may lead to a more comprehensive foundation for chemical bonding theory. Building on this promising development, our work provides a refined discussion of quantum information theoretical concepts by introducing the physical correlation and its separation into classical and quantum parts as distinctive quantifiers of electronic structure. In particular, we succeed in quantifying the entanglement. Intriguingly, our results for different molecules reveal that the total correlation between orbitals is mainly classical, raising questions about the general significance of entanglement in chemical bonding. Our work also shows that implementing the fundamental particle number superselection rule, so far not accounted for in quantum chemistry, removes a major part of correlation and entanglement seen previously. In that respect, realizing quantum information processing tasks with molecular systems might be more challenging than anticipated.

The interplay between electron interaction and geometry in a molecular system can lead to rather paradoxical situations. The prime example is the dissociation limit of the hydrogen molecule. While a significant increase of the distance r between the two nuclei marginalizes the electron−electron interaction, the exact ground state does, however, not take the form of a single Slater determinant. By first reviewing and then employing concepts from quantum information theory, we resolve this paradox and its generalizations to more complex systems in a quantitative way. To be more specific, we illustrate and prove that thermal noise due to finite, possibly even just infinitesimally low, temperature T will destroy the entanglement beyond a critical separation distance r crit (T) entirely. Our analysis is comprehensive in the sense that we simultaneously discuss both total correlation and entanglement in the particle picture as well as in the orbital/mode picture. Our results reveal a conceptually new characterization of static and dynamical correlation in ground states by relating them to the (non)robustness of correlation with respect to thermal noise.

The second quantum revolution is all about exploiting the quantum nature of atoms and molecules to execute quantum information processing tasks. To boost this growing endeavor and by anticipating the key role of quantum chemistry therein, our work establishes a framework for systematically exploring, quantifying and dissecting correlation effects in molecules. By utilizing the geometric picture of quantum states we compare --- on a unified basis and in an operationally meaningful way --- total, quantum and classical correlation and entanglement in molecular ground states. To unlock and maximize the quantum informational resourcefulness of molecules an orbital optimization scheme is developed, leading to a paradigm-shifting insight: A single covalent bond equates to the entanglement 2ln(2). This novel and more versatile perspective on electronic structure suggests a generalization of valence bond theory, overcoming deficiencies of modern chemical bonding theories.