Multiconfiguration Pair-Density Functional Theory Calculations of Low-lying States of Complex Chemical Systems with Quantum Computers

Abstract

Accurately describing strong electron correlation in complex systems remains a prominent challenge in computational chemistry as near-term quantum algorithms treating total correlation often require prohibitively deep circuits. Here we present a hybrid strategy combining the Variational Quantum Eigensolver with Multiconfiguration Pair-Density Functional Theory to efficiently decouple correlation effects. This approach confines static correlation to a compact multireference quantum state while recovering dynamic correlation through a classical on-top density functional using reduced-density information. By enabling self-consistent orbital optimization, the method significantly reduces quantum resource overheads without sacrificing physical rigor. We demonstrate chemical accuracy on standard benchmarks by reproducing C${}_2$ equilibrium bond lengths and benzene excitation energies with mean absolute errors of 0.006 Ã and 0.048 eV respectively. Most notably, for the strongly correlated Cr${}_2$ dimer requiring a large complete active space (48e, 42o), the framework yields a bound potential-energy curve and recovers qualitative dissociation behavior despite realistic hardware noise. These results establish that separating correlation types provides a practical route to reliable predictions on near-term quantum hardware.