An
efficient excited state method, named xCDFCI, in the
configuration
interaction framework is proposed. xCDFCI extends the unconstrained
nonconvex optimization problem in coordinate descent full configuration
interaction (CDFCI) to a multicolumn version for low-lying excited
states computation. The optimization problem is addressed via a tailored
coordinate descent method. In each iteration, a determinant is selected
based on an approximated gradient, and coefficients of all states
associated with the selected determinant are updated. A deterministic
compression is applied to limit memory usage. We test xCDFCI applied
to H2O and N2 molecules under the cc-pVDZ basis
set. For both systems, five low-lying excited states in the same symmetry
sector are calculated, together with the ground state. xCDFCI also
produces accurate binding curves of the carbon dimer in the cc-pVDZ
basis with chemical accuracy, where the ground state and four excited
states in the same symmetry sector are benchmarked.