This article summarizes technical advances contained in the fifth major release of the Q-Chem quantum chemistry program package, covering developments since 2015. A comprehensive library of exchange–correlation functionals, along with a suite of correlated many-body methods, continues to be a hallmark of the Q-Chem software. The many-body methods include novel variants of both coupled-cluster and configuration-interaction approaches along with methods based on the algebraic diagrammatic construction and variational reduced density-matrix methods. Methods highlighted in Q-Chem 5 include a suite of tools for modeling core-level spectroscopy, methods for describing metastable resonances, methods for computing vibronic spectra, the nuclear–electronic orbital method, and several different energy decomposition analysis techniques. High-performance capabilities including multithreaded parallelism and support for calculations on graphics processing units are described. Q-Chem boasts a community of well over 100 active academic developers, and the continuing evolution of the software is supported by an “open teamware” model and an increasingly modular design.

A novel efficient implementation of the non-Dyson algebraic diagrammatic construction (ADC) scheme of the (N − 1)-part of the electron propagator up to third order of perturbation theory is presented. Due to the underlying spin-orbital formulation, for the first time, the computation of ionization potentials of open-shell radicals is thus possible via non-Dyson ADC schemes. Thorough evaluation of the accuracy, applicability, and capabilities of the new method reveals a mean error of 0.15 eV for closed- as well as open-shell atoms and molecules.

When dealing with approximate wave functions, molecular properties can be computed either as expectation values or as derivatives of the energy with respect to a corresponding perturbation. In this work, the intermediate state representation (ISR) formalism for the computation of expectation values is compared to the Lagrange formalism following a derivative ansatz, which are two alternative approaches of which neither one can be considered superior in general. Within the ISR formalism, terms are included up to a given order of perturbation theory only, while in the Lagrange formalism, all terms are accounted for arising through the differentiation. Similarities and differences of the Lagrange and ISR formalism are illustrated using explicit working equations for selected methods and analyzing numerical results for a range of coupled-cluster as well as algebraic-diagrammatic construction (ADC) methods for excited states. The analysis explains why the ADC(3/2) method is able to yield a large amount of the orbital-relaxation effects for p-h states in contrast to ADC(2) although the same second-order ISR is used to represent the corresponding operator.

Quinoidal azaacenes with almost pure diradical character (y=0.95 to y=0.99) were synthesized. All compounds exhibit paramagnetic behavior investigated by EPR and NMR spectroscopy, and SQUID measurements, revealing thermally populated triplet states with an extremely low‐energy gap ΔEST′ of 0.58 to 1.0 kcal mol−1. The species are persistent in solution (half‐life≈14–21 h) and in the solid state they are stable for weeks.

Vibrationally resolved one-photon absorption and electronic circular dichroism spectra of (R)-methyl oxirane were calculated with different electronic and vibronic models selecting, through an analysis of the convergence of the results, the best compromise between reliability and computational cost. Linear-response TD-DFT/CAM-B3LYP/SNST electronic computations in conjunction with the simple vertical gradient vibronic model were chosen and employed for systematic comparison with the available experimental data. Remarkable agreement between simulated and experimental spectra was achieved for both one-photon absorption and circular dichroism concerning peak positions, relative intensities, and general spectral shapes considering the computational efficiency of the chosen theoretical approach. The significant improvement of the results with respect to smearing of vertical electronic transitions by phenomenological Gaussian functions and the possible inclusion of solvent effects by polarizable continuum models at a negligible additional cost paves the route toward the simulation and analysis of spectral shapes of complex molecular systems in their natural environment.